women

Refugee Action's campaign for a fair hearing for refugee women

In March 2004, in response to campaigning by the Refugee Women’s Resource Project, Refugee Action, Women for Refugee Women and others, the Home Office introduced Gender Guidelines to help Home Office asylum caseworkers recognise some of the specific issues which can lead women to claim asylum.

These can include:

being subjected to sexual violence
suffering persecution because of their resistance to restrictions imposed on them, such as dress codes or limitations on movement.

In March 2008 we revisited the Women's campaign

Although our demands had been implemented, we had found that caseworkers still didn't receive enough training on the issue, and as a result, some women’s claims for protection are were being wrongly dismissed.

Detention of women and children

Denied protection in the UK, vulnerable women, and often their children too, are still being detained having committed no crime.

We want to see gender guidelines fully implemented, and to ensure that vulnerable women and children aren’t detained in the asylum process.

Motherland

Following a sell-out show at London's Young Vic on Mothers Day, Sunday 2 March, this unique and powerful event returned for 2 final performances on Saturday 15 March.

Baroness Helena Kennedy introduced the heartbreaking and heroic journeys of women and children who have sought refuge in the UK, brought to the stage by Juliet Stevenson, Harriet Walter and other actors. Refugees and asylum seeking women told their own moving stories.

Following the performances, audience members signed a card to mothers in detention and a statement to the Minister for Women in support of refugee women.

Refugee Action supported this event which was organised by Women for Refugee Women. WRW works with other organisations to raise awareness of the experiences of refugee women. This event was also supported by Asylum Aid, Medical Justice, Bail for Immigration Detainees, Actors for Refugees, Yarl's Wood Befrienders and Migrants Resource Centre.

Our work with women

Our work with women is informed by the particular problems they face: from gender based persecution in their country of origin, to male biased asylum procedures in the UK, inadequate housing, child care needs and healthcare that is not culturally or gender sensitive.

We assist statutory agencies to develop appropriate services for women, like women-only English language classes or home tuition for women who, for cultural and religious reasons, can’t attend mixed classes, and the choice of a female doctor or interpreter. We also support other advice agencies to give women the choice of a female caseworker and interpreter, women-only drop-in sessions, social events and assist women’s self-help groups.

We work with refugee women to campaign for better conditions and actively support Action for Refugee Women, a national network of refugee women’s organisations and individuals.

Refugee Action's Women's projects

We run various projects which specifically support women refugee and asylum seekers.

Women's Development Project - Leicester and Nottingham
Routes to Learning - Leicester (now ended)

Successfully campaigning for women’s safety

In the first ever research report to comprehensively document the lives of refugee women in Britain (Is it Safe Here? Refugee women’s experiences in the UK, 2002), Refugee Action found that 83 per cent of women interviewed feel so unsafe here that they live under self-imposed curfew, locking themselves indoors after 7 o’clock at night. A third have been spat on or shouted at in the street. One in two feel so depressed and anxious they cannot sleep at night.

mother with two children
Supporting women asylum seekers
and refugees is central to Refugee
Action's work

The research found that female asylum seekers were facing a number of problems and concerns under the current NASS (the National Asylum Support Service) system.

On the basis of these findings we launched a campaign to stand up for refugee women’s safety. The campaign aimed to bring about specific policy changes to provide refugee women with a minimum standard of safety.

As a result of our campaign:

NASS agreed to fund places in women’s refuges for women fleeing domestic violence as common practice
NASS agreed to offer all women single sex accommodation if preferred
A working group was set up, led by Refugee Action and consisting of relevant NASS staff and colleagues from the other agencies, to look specifically at the needs of women refugees and asylum seekers. Nothing was in place before to look specifically at the needs of women.

Influencing women's policy

In July 2004 the Home Office launched Paying the Price - a Consultation Paper to prompt a public debate on how to deal with the issues raised by prostitution in England and Wales.

Refugee Action's response

Action for Refugee Women

Action for Refugee Women (AfRW) is a strategic network of individuals and organisations which are interested in developing policy and services for refugee women in the UK. AfRW was set up in 1997 by a group of women assisted by Refugee Action to ensure refugee women have the opportunities to participate in the process of policy development specific to refugee women in the UK.

Through the years, Refugee Action has provided AfRW with both practical and strategic assistance in the network’s efforts be a voice for refugee women.

AfRW’s objectives include affecting changes that will improve the quality of life of refugee women and creating opportunities to promote and celebrate the positive contribution of refugee women.

Among AfRW’s activities are:

Organising seminars and conferences
Campaigning and lobbying
Celebration of International Women’s Day
Organising training and information exchange workshops
Promoting good practice in dealing with refugee women’s issues

Membership is open to individual refugee women, representatives of community group, statutory and voluntary agencies. Whilst largely London based, AfRW welcomes participation from women outside London.

Refugee women’s right to safety

Refugee Action has developed a series of multi-lingual leaflets on UK law and women’s rights aimed at women asylum seekers and refugees. The leaflets contain information on issues such as child protection, UK law on marriage, cohabitation and divorce; protection from racial and sexual harassment and domestic violence. The leaflets are available in: English, French, Farsi, Kurdish, Arabic, Somali, Romanian and Czech. These are available to download.

We have also produced a multi-lingual video providing information on domestic violence, Don’t Suffer in Silence. The languages covered are: English, French, Farsi, Kurdish, Arabic, Somali, Romanian and Czech.

For a copy of the video please contact info@refugee-action.org.uk or 020 7654 7705.