Asylum from Rape

ASYLUM FROM RAPE

70% of women seeking asylum in the UK have suffered rape and other sexual violence. But women needing safety for themselves and their children face the same brutal lack of care and injustice as women who are raped in the UK. Despite national and international legal precedents recognising gender-based persecution, rape victims still face horrific obstacles in claiming protection for example instead of getting help to overcome, the difficulties they face in speaking about their experiences, these difficulties are used to disbelieve and dismiss their accounts. We found 88% of women are disbelieved by the Home Office. Legal aid cuts have compounded the injustice they face, denying them representation at hearings and expert reports which could corroborate their claims. See our research documenting this.

Women inside Yarl’s Wood IRC demand an end to brutal treatment by Serco, 8 May 2008

Women inside Yarl’s Wood IRC demand an end to brutal treatment by Serco DEMANDS FOLLOWING SERCO’S INVITATION TO VISIT YARL’S WOOD REMOVAL CENTRE ISSUED AT THEIR AGM, 13 May 2008 1. Many women in detention have suffered rape and other torture. According to the Immigration Services Operational Manual (Third EDN) if someone reports being a …

Read more

Asylum from Rape Bulletin: Summer 2008

Women reunited with their children 5 March was one of the happiest occasions of this past year for many of us.  Betty A, a longstanding and much loved volunteer was reunited with the four children whom she was forced to leave behind when she fled Uganda.  The full and heart-rending story is still to be told …

Read more

Asylum From Rape Bulletin – Summer 2007

Misjudging Asylum, Rape and Detention – 17 July 2007 John Mc Donnell MP and Lord Avebury hosted a packed meeting in the House of Commons which brought together women asylum seekers, MPs, Lords, lawyers, community and breastfeeding activists and other supporters to highlight the obstacles rape survivors face in getting their claims recognized. WAR’s speaker …

Read more

Stop the threatened removal of Janipher Maseko, breastfeeding mother with two babies

Update: Following a wave of public outrage against the Home Office, social services and SERCO Ms Janipher Maseko, was told that she and her children are to be released. Ms Janipher Maseko, aged 18, who had fled rape and violence in Uganda and sought asylum in the UK four years ago as an unaccompanied minor, …

Read more

Misjudging Rape – Breaching Gender Guidelines & International Law in Asylum Appeals

RESEARCH: Misjudging Rape – Breaching Gender Guidelines & International Law in Asylum Appeals Black Women’s Rape Action Project & Women Against Rape’s research documents the discrimination and hostility women seeking asylum from rape face.  Over 70% of the women claiming asylum in the UK are rape survivors.  Many face severe obstacles at every stage of …

Read more

RAPED, TORTURED… But denied asylum by the UK Home Office

Cristel Amiss of Black Women’s Rape Action Project: ‘It’s harder for women to get asylum cases recognised Addressing how the specific persecution women face is not explicitly addressed under the UN Convention on Refugees and that makes it even harder for women to get asylum cases recognised, as reported in The Voice, July 2006. Sara …

Read more