Today, on International Women’s Day, our politicians will take to social media en masse to celebrate women’s achievements and call for gender parity. But our government is failing women in this country, with migrant and BAME women hit hardest of all.
Today alone, approximately 3,000 women and girls in the UK will experience some form of domestic abuse. Many will have nowhere safe to turn. And if the government’s draft Domestic Abuse Bill becomes law in its current form, they will continue to live without vital shelter and support.
The Bill was meant to ‘transform’ the UK’s response to this devastating crime which impacts around two million adults a year, of whom roughly 1.3million are female. But even after consulting the public and months of drafting, it is a wasted opportunity.
And like so much of the policy emanating from Westminster in recent years, people with insecure immigration status will be hurt most. Thousands of survivors of abuse will remain destitute, at risk of detention or deportation, or trapped in abusive relationships if this new law does not change to equally safeguard society’s most marginalised groups.
Under the government’s hostile environment regime, survivors with insecure status risk being locked up and even deported if they report crimes or seek assistance. And perpetrators also use these measures to control and manipulate women.
In one case, a survivor who left her abusive husband found he had lied about managing her immigration paperwork. As a victim of FGM who was terrified her daughters would be at risk if they were sent back to Nigeria, she was left in limbo and at very high risk of further abuse.
If the Domestic Abuse Bill is to empower women, the government must legislate for a ’firewall’ between vital public services and immigration enforcement - so all survivors can safely report to the police, social services, health professionals and others without fear.
But the failures do not end there. Refuge services have been decimated since 2010, resulting in around 60% of all referrals being routinely turned away – which rises to 80% for BAME women.
The draft Bill commits a limited £300,000 to “build resources and expertise within specialist BAME services” and makes no mention of increasing the number of refuges, advocates and provisions for these communities. We need long-term funding models that meet the needs of all survivors and real investment in crucial specialist services – not only for BAME women, but for LGBTQIA+ communities, disabled survivors and those over 60.
Local authorities should have a statutory obligation to provide emergency refuge places and associated specialist services. And we must ensure all survivors of abuse can access these provisions – regardless of their immigration status. Many migrant women have “no recourse to public funds”, meaning they receive no state support and are regularly turned away from safe accommodation – leaving them with a harrowing choice between destitution or returning to their abuser.
All the draft Bill offers is an insignificant £500,000 for a new ‘crisis support system’ for them. This will barely scratch the surface considering the scale of the problem. It must instead abolish the discriminatory No Recourse to Public Funds rule for survivors of domestic abuse.
And more can be done to make our justice system accessible for all. We need the Ministry of Justice to commit to substantial legal aid reform – including lowering the evidential threshold required to prove domestic abuse for a legal aid claim.
Since 2002, survivors of abuse on spousal or partner visas can apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK under the Domestic Violence (DV) Rule. They can also receive limited leave to remain and access to some public funds for three months under the Destitution Domestic Violence Concession (DDVC).
This vitally enables some migrant women to establish an independent life away from violence – but excludes others from these crucial protections. This Bill must finally make every survivor with insecure immigration status eligible to make DV Rule and DDVC applications. And the latter must be provided for at least six months. –
Human rights laws oblige the government to protect all women residing in this country from violence and abuse. And the Istanbul Convention – which this Bill should finally ratify – explicitly requires states to protect the rights of victims without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality or immigration status. Yet migrant and BAME survivors continue to be subject to a discriminatory two-tier system.
This Bill is an opportunity to put this right, and if the government is sincere in its support for all women in the UK, it will take it.
Zehrah Hasan works in the policy and campaigns at Liberty