Immigration firewall needed so migrant victims can safely report honour-based abuse to police, Parliamentary committee says

House of
Commons

Women and Equalities Committee

So-called honour-based abuse

Sixth Report of Session 2022–23 HC 831

Report, together with formal minutes
relating to the report

Ordered by the House of Commons to be
printed 12 July 2023

Published on 19 July 2023 by authority of the
House of Commons

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Migrant victims

51. During our inquiry we heard that victims of honour-based abuse with insecure immigration status can be reluctant to report crimes against them or to seek support due to concerns that authorities may report them to Immigration Enforcement and those fears are exploited by their abusers. Such concerns are compounded for migrant victims with no recourse to public funds who can face destitution if they leave an abusive relationship. [84] BAWSO, a Wales-based specialist service supporting Black and minority victims of abuse, explained that migrant victims can be subjected to:

emotional abuse using immigration status to confine them in abusive relationships. Perpetrators use threats to take their children from them and report them as illegal immigrants to police to be deported. [85]

52. There have been repeated calls for an end to the sharing of victims' data by the police with Immigration Enforcement. The introduction of a 'firewall' between those services has been supported by a coalition of 58 organisations led by the Latin American Women's Rights Service (LAWRS), the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, the London Victims Commissioner, the Justice Select Committee, and a number of organisations submitting evidence to this inquiry. [86]

53. In 2018, Liberty and Southall Black Sisters submitted a super-complaint against the Home Office and the NPCC. [87] The super-complaint stated that "victims and witnesses [ … ] to all crimes, who have insecure or irregular immigration status, may be unacceptably deterred from reporting to the police due to fears that their details will be passed to the Home Office." [88] The super-complaint focused mainly on female victims of domestic and sexual abuse and violence. The super-complaint proposed a number of solutions, including establishing a "complete firewall" between the police and the Home Office to prevent data-sharing on victims and witnesses of crime. [89]

54. In its response to the super-complaint, the panel of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), the College of Policing (CoP) and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found that the current system was causing "significant harm to the public interest". [90] It called on the Home Office to review the existing framework and for that review to include "further consideration of a mechanism for establishing a firewall between police and immigration enforcement services for all migrant victims of crime with insecure immigration status." [91] As an interim measure the panel called for an immediate halt to the police sharing information on domestic abuse victims with Immigration Enforcement and, instead, for police officers to link the victim to a third party that can provide advice and assistance. [92]

55. The panel considered that a complete firewall, which it took to mean preventing all communication between the police service and the Home Office on migrant victims of crime, "could undermine the public interest and the interests of bringing to justice individuals breaking the law" and that any policy decision to adopt a 'firewall' would have to be "informed by evaluation to minimise the risk of unintended consequences". [93]

56. In December 2021, the Home Office published a review of data sharing arrangements in response to the panel's report. The review concluded that the Home Office would not establish a firewall between police and immigration enforcement because it deemed that it would not be "operable or proportionate". [94] The Home Office maintained that information sharing had a safeguarding purpose:

Information sharing enables, for example, the police to potentially acquire a fuller understanding of a migrants' particular needs and circumstances. The Home Office may have relevant information and be able to help to protect and support victims and help with an investigation (including establishing the immigration status of the perpetrator), which may assist in determining the most appropriate and effective intervention(s). [95]

Instead, the Home Office said it would seek to implement an Immigration Enforcement Migrant Victims Protocol "which puts safeguarding needs first". [96] The protocol would:

set out that no immigration enforcement action will be taken against that victim while investigation and prosecution proceedings are ongoing, and the victim is receiving support and advice to make an application to regularise their stay. We will [ … ] provide information and signposting at the point of the referral from police and keep contact with the individual on the progress of support and advice being received. [97]

57. Some specialist organisations including Southall Black Sisters, Liberty, Imkaan and LAWRS rejected the proposal of the protocol, arguing that it "failed to address the harm generated by data-sharing and failed to guarantee safety in reporting to the police without the fear of detention or deportation". [98] As a result, many organisations have refused to engage with the Home Office on its development, including ten of the 16 organisations which had contributed to the original review. [99]

CONCLUSION

58. Abusers use the insecure immigration status of their victims to deter and prevent them from seeking support, exploiting fears that reporting abuse to the police will lead to action against the victim by Immigration Enforcement. We are not satisfied that the Immigration Enforcement Migrant Victims Protocol proposed by the Home Office, which prevents immigration enforcement action against that victim only while investigation and prosecution proceedings are ongoing, and the victim is receiving support to make an application to regularise their stay, is sufficient to mitigate those concerns.

RECOMMENDATION

59. The Government should establish an appropriate firewall-type mechanism between the police and the Home Office to prevent data sharing for the purposes of enforcing immigration rules against victims of abuse. The firewall should be designed to ensure the police only share information with Immigration Enforcement on victims in exceptional circumstances, which must be narrowly defined and be for the purposes of assisting in the safeguarding of the individual or taking action against their abuser. If and when police become aware a victim has irregular immigration status, they should provide that person with information about local support services (including legal advice) and encourage them to seek advice on regularising their status. The National Police Chiefs' Council guidance should be updated to reflect this.

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Support for victims with no recourse to public funds

66. Migrants with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) are people who have been given limited leave to enter the UK—usually to visit, study, work or join family—with a condition imposed on their leave to enter specifying they have no access to funding such as benefits, or services such as the NHS. We heard that the pressure on services trying to support migrant victims with NRPF are even more acute than with other victims. These victims are prevented by their status from accessing a number of forms of state support and welfare benefits, including housing benefit. Victims with NRPF have difficulty in accessing refuge accommodation and achieving financial independence from their abusers, often leaving them trapped in abusive relationships or situations, or vulnerable to exploitation. [113] The Centre for Women's Justice told us that victims with NRPF had a heightened vulnerability to abuse, including honour-based abuse. They explained:

Women in these positions echo similar stories of extreme violence and control, domestic servitude, isolation, cruelty, abandonment and neglect. All too frequently their documents and passports are taken away and they are told that any transgression on their part will result in their detention and deportation to countries of origin where they are likely to face further risks of violence and destitution and are more likely to be ostracised by their families for transgressing from social norms on marriage and divorce. Most women are therefore imprisoned in abuse and find themselves in positions that are similar to that of bonded labour in that their vulnerability and powerlessness is often exploited to the full. [114]

67. Diana Nammi, Founder and Executive Director at Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO), told us about some of the challenges in supporting victims with no recourse to public funds:

Every month, we pay nearly £1,500 just to support women from minority communities in hotels or refuges. The problem is that many refuges don't take them easily because they have no recourse to public funds. Because the funding from the Government is for a very short time, most refuges are worried about losing money, so they don't accept them. We pay from our reserves or from the donations we get from people to support women. They spend about two weeks in a hotel before we find them a safe place. [115]

68. Nicole Jacobs, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner told us that she:

strongly advised that we need more provision of support in place to open recourse to public funds to a wider range of migrants. The London School of Economics has shown us there is a cost-benefit analysis of about 4:1 when we do that. [116]

The Commissioner also told us she wanted to see pathways to support opened up so migrant victims can access accommodation as well as other services, and a dedicated national funding pot to assist some victims. [117]

69. The Home Office offers some support to victims who may become destitute if they seek to escape their abuser through the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession (DDVC). The DDVC provides leave that enables individuals to access public funds for three months which can be used to fund safe accommodation. These victims can also apply for settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain) under the Domestic Violence Indefinite Leave to Remain rules. These schemes have been widely praised but women on non-spousal/partner visas with NRPF and undocumented women are not eligible for the DVILR and the DDVC. In 2021, the Government introduced the 'Support for Migrant Victims' pilot scheme for women with NRPF facing domestic abuse. We discuss that scheme below.

Support for Migrant Victims scheme

70. In April 2021, the Government launched the 'Support for Migrant Victims' pilot scheme, which provided £1.5 million to third sector organisations to fund advice, subsistence payments, and housing for a period of up to 12 weeks. A further £1.4 million was allocated in 2022–23 to extend the scheme by a year. [118] The Minister for Safeguarding told us the scheme:

works with other wraparound support services for migrant victims of domestic abuse, which does include accommodation, subsistence, counselling, and, at times, legal advice. I do not think it would be fair to frame it that the Government have not assisted or that there are fears as to the longevity of that. So far, the Government have supported 425 migrant victims through that £1.4 million fund. [119]

The scheme has now been extended to March 2025. [120]

71. Southall Black Sisters, which delivers the pilot scheme, shared their concerns that "many on non-spousal/partner visas and undocumented victims have not come forward as it does not also give them the right to settlement". They explained that they had commissioned their own evaluation of the scheme.

The findings of the latter evaluation show that providing financial assistance is a vital safety net, but victims do need more money for longer as the current rates are below those for Universal Credit, despite a recent rise to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. Many are still unable to access a refuge in areas where there are high rents, and instead women and children are housed in unsuitable accommodation such as bed and breakfast or hotels. Also, some refuges are reluctant to accept referrals if funding is only available for a short period, particularly in complex spousal/partner, non-spousal/partner visa and undocumented cases which may take some time to resolve. [121]

The Istanbul Convention

72. The Government has said the results of the Support for Migrant Victims scheme will inform its approach to implementing the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. The Istanbul Convention establishes legal standards to ensure women's right to be free from violence. States that have ratified the Convention must adopt measures to fulfil their commitment to preventing and combating violence against women and girls. It applies to all women and the adequacy of the UK Government's approach to meeting its commitments under the Convention is monitored and reported upon. The Istanbul Convention was ratified by the Government in 2022, and came into force on 1 November 2022, however, the Government entered a reservation to Article 59 which compels states to protect women whose residency status depends on that of an abusive spouse or partner. In response to a Written Question in September 2022, the Government explained that:

[it] will make a longer-term decision about the UK's position on Article 59, and whether the reservation on that article should be maintained or withdrawn, in the light of the findings of the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme pilot and wider policy considerations. Therefore, we decided to apply a reservation on Article 59, which nine other countries have also done, to enable the UK to ratify as soon as possible. [122]

73. This approach was reiterated in a letter from the Home Secretary to the Chairs of this Committee, the Home Affairs Committee and the Joint Committee on Human Rights on 11 January 2023, in which she stated that the Home Office:

remain[s] committed to making a decision, as soon as practicable, on whether it is appropriate to maintain our reservation on Article 59 of the Convention, relating to migrant victims of domestic abuse. I can confirm that the evaluation report of the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme pilot has been received. Ministers will need time to carefully consider it and we will share the report findings as soon as is practicable. [123]

74. The reservation to Article 59 has been criticised by stakeholders in written evidence to this inquiry including by the charity SafeLives, which recommended the Government should remove the reservation and ensure that migrant survivors of domestic abuse receive the rights afforded to them under the Istanbul Convention. [124]

RECOMMENDATION

75. The Support for Migrant Victims Scheme pilot has been valuable and we welcome its extension to 2025. However, there are shortfalls in funding to support victims with no recourse to public funds. We are concerned this is aggravated by the Government's reservation on Article 59 of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the 'Istanbul Convention'). In order to help limit perpetrators' ability to use a victim's immigration status as a tool for control, the Government should reconsider its reservation to Article 59 of the Istanbul Convention. It should also consider extending eligibility to the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession scheme and Domestic Violence Indefinite Leave to Remain to all migrant victims.

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[124] For example: SafeLives (HBA0037); Southall Black Sisters (HBA0051); Dr Emmaleena Käkelä, University of Strathclyde (HBA0010)