Women in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre on hunger strike protesting against SERCO’s draconian regime

Mothers join hunger strike Today 91 families, mainly single mothers with their children, some of whom have been detained for over three months, have joined the protest. Mothers report that after 5pm their kids go hungry as there is no food available until 8am the next morning. Children can’t manage under such harsh conditions. Most …

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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 …

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‘Don’t you want to know why I’m bleeding?’

‘Don’t you want to know why I’m bleeding?’ An assault by a white neighbour on a Muslim woman in London has shown just how difficult it can be for victims of alleged racist attacks to prise open the doors of justice. Laura Smith reports Bilan Mohamud shows the injuries inflicted on her by a neighbour …

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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 …

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Rape victims denied refuge in Britain

Letter published in The Independent, 24 May 2006   Sir: The “soft targets” for deportation are first of all women and children who find it hardest to “disappear” in the system. (‘Soft targets’ picked on for deportation, say refugee campaigners”, 18 May). Just last week, a young woman was removed to an African country after …

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Government says rape victims are “not vulnerable” to deny asylum seekers legal representation

Correspondence between government Minister David Lammy and Black Women’s Rape Action Project & Women Against Rape published in The Guardian Letters page Erosion of asylum rights Monday July 12, 2004, The Guardian, Letters Rape survivors are vulnerable and find it difficult, often impossible, to speak about the violence they have suffered. The law acknowledges this, …

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