New report calls on Government to fulfil commitments to survivors of gender-based violence by ending immigration detention for women
A new report by Women for Refugee Women (WRW) finds that asylum-seeking women who have fled gender-based violence continue to face serious harm while in immigration detention in UK.
The 23-page report, A Decade of Harm: Survivors of Gender-based Violence Locked Up in Immigration Detention, can be downloaded here.
Research for the report was conducted by a team of seven women with personal experience of the UK's asylum system. The report is informed by the findings of a survey of 40 asylum-seeking women with experience of detention.
The report reveals that despite a 2016 Home Office ban on male staff conducting constant supervision of women, they continue to observe women in intimate situations, including while showering, dressing, or using the toilet. Additionally, women remain subject to degrading treatment in immigration detention, including intrusive supervision and searches conducted by male staff.
WRW stresses that nearly all women held in immigration detention have experienced gender-based violence, including rape, domestic abuse, forced marriage, and sexual exploitation. Detention retraumatises vulnerable women and further damages their self-esteem.
WRW's Spokesperson Facilitator, who was once detained at Yarl's Wood, explained: "Although my life is moving on, I still remember what it feels like to be detained. The way I was treated gave me mental health issues, when what I needed was help and support. I know how detention destroys a woman. I know the pain it causes."
Data from WRW's survey of detained women paints a bleak picture of the psychological toll of detention. According to the findings, 85% of women reported feeling anxious or depressed, 85% felt dehumanized, 80% believed they were not valued by UK society, 75% felt hopeless, and 65% experienced suicidal thoughts.
As the report highlights, a lack of high quality legal representation is one of the reasons that many women end up being detained. It explains: "[T]he current legal aid crisis means that at present many women seeking asylum are unable to secure legal representation at all. Consequently, they are left to navigate the legal complexities of the asylum system themselves, without the specialist support needed to properly argue and evidence their claims. […] [I]t is often the case that women in detention have been wrongly refused asylum and their claims for protection haven't been fully explored. A lack of good legal advice also means some women don't know they might be eligible for asylum until they find themselves in detention."
The report also highlights that the vast majority of asylum-seeking women held in immigration detention are not removed from the UK, but released back into the community to continue with their cases. WRW says this renders their detention completely pointless and serving no purpose but to harm. The authors of the report said: "There is no justification for women's detention. Alongside the harm it causes, for most women detention is completely pointless: 89% of women seeking asylum are released to continue with their cases in the community. So why were they detained in the first place?"
Over the past decade, WRW has documented the experiences of detained women, noting that there has been some progress, such as a reduction in the number of women detained at any one time, from over 300 in 2014 to around 100 currently. However, for those still subjected to detention, the harm persists.
The report calls on the Labour government to fulfil its commitments to supporting survivors of gender-based violence by ending the use of immigration detention for women. WRW advocates for the establishment of a community-based alternative to detention, an approach that recent Home Office pilot programs have demonstrated to be viable. With relatively few women currently in detention, the organisation argues that such a policy shift is both achievable and necessary to protect the well-being of asylum-seeking women.
WRW's Co-Director, Andrea Vukovic, said: "Our research also demonstrates that immigration detention is not a necessary or inevitable part of the asylum system. As evidenced in two 'alternative to detention' pilots run by the Home Office, people's asylum claims can be resolved in the community, without the use of detention. We urge the Government to implement a new women's alternative to detention scheme, to support survivors of gender-based violence to resolve their asylum cases within our communities, with the support they need. Doing so would support the Government's wider commitment to support survivors of gender-based violence and to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG)."