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.
Yarl’s Wood hunger striker speaks out about abuse by guards http://againstrape.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Yarls-Wood-hunger-striker-speaks-out-about-abuse-by-guards.mp3 Title: YW Hunger Striker Length: 2:44 minutes (3.77 MB) Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 192Kbps (CBR)
Women speak out in Parliament against detention, deportation, privatisation and profiteering 14 January 2010 With recent press coverage shedding light on the devastating impact of detention on children, and the public outrage that followed, it was no surprise that a meeting on the detention of mothers and other vulnerable people in the House of Commons …
Winning compensation for unlawful detention of rape survivor. Listen to Ms PB being interview on Radio 4’s “PM” program in December 2008 here. Read about her fight against the racist attacks here which she and other women suffered in a Liverpool Hostel. You may have heard about the case of Ms PB who was recently …
Rape survivor from Rwanda in brave fight to help others 21 May 2009 Stella Mpaka, of Women Against Rape, is now helping others to overcome their personal nightmares. Your article (Camden group’s battle to prioritise a heinous crime, H&H April 2) showed some of Women Against Rape’s (WAR) ground breaking work winning justice for rape …
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 …
From Ms PB who won £38 000 in compensation for unlawful detention, March 2008. “I have been granted leave to remain in the UK. I can not express my appreciation to Women Against Rape who played a vital role to make this day come true. They called me almost every week while I was in …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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 …
