Asylum From Rape Bulletin No. 1 August 2006

 

Our Asylum from Rape Project aims to provide self-help support services to rape survivors seeking asylum.  We offer help and referrals, welcome volunteers and provide guidance to organisations on how to meet the needs of asylum-seeking rape survivors. 

 

New publication: Rights and Information Sheet

During Refugee Week (June) we published our Rights and Information Sheet for survivors of rape seeking asylum.  This gives advice about what to expect from the legal process, informs women of their rights (for example at Home Office interviews or in Appeal hearings), and gives some examples of case law and precedents which might be helpful in particular cases.  We expect this to be distributed widely among asylum seekers, legal representatives and community organisations.

 

Self-help advice sessions

An average of 30 women attended our self-help counselling and advice sessions.  Nearly all were from countries in Africa, with the majority from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, but also including Nigeria, Kenya and Congo Brazzaville.  Several new women came from other countries: India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.  About half the women attending whom we had been helping for some time now have lawyers pursuing their asylum claims and helping them to get the housing and support they are entitled to.  Many women who came for the first time had no current asylum claims and so were destitute and homeless.  A number reported that bad legal representation was a significant factor in their claims being closed.  We are trying to find them new lawyers.   

 

A committed rota of volunteers including several service users began receiving regular training in responding to requests for help.  Some have received specialised training to respond to the many women detained in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre who contact us regularly, and are now able to give advice and support by phone on a daily basis.

 

Winning asylum from rape! 

Fantastic news!  Ms X from Eritrea has finally won refugee status, seven years after arriving in the UK.  After leaving Eritrea in 1982 she spent many years in Saudi Arabia where she was effectively imprisoned and ill-treated by the family who employed her as a domestic servant. She fled to the UK and claimed asylum after being detained for two months in Ethiopia during the 1998 border war with Eritrea.  She suffered rape by soldiers and other torture.  She was first referred to us in 2002 by a friend when her claim was closed after she was told it would be safe for her to return to Eritrea – she was about to be made homeless.   We were able to refer her to a lawyer who submitted a fresh claim for asylum on human rights grounds; this was eventually accepted by an Adjudicator, but the Home Office appealed.  After over a year of waiting for her case to come to court, the Home Office’s appeal was rejected.

 

Other case news

Ms B, a rape-survivor from Darfur (Sudan) called us from Yarl’s Wood.  Even though her account of rape was accepted, shockingly the Home Office was insisting it was safe to send her back to another part of Sudan.  She was terrified and very distressed.  We helped stop her removal by forwarding to her lawyer vital information and by asking Rosie Kane MEP from Glasgow, where Ms B had previously lived, to help.  Ms B was released and is now back in Glasgow.  

 

Ms A from India, came to the UK in 1994 following an arranged marriage, which subsequently broke down because of domestic violence.  Three years ago she applied to the Home Office for permission to remain but never received a reply and had to continue living with her son in the same house as her ex-husband.  Her solicitor was demanding money before making any further representations and she was absolutely desperate.  Her MP had never responded to her requests for help.  Within minutes of receiving our fax asking him to intervene, her MP called us back and then immediately made submissions to the Home Office on Ms A’s behalf.  We also referred her to a reputable Law Centre for representation and after two months she received indefinite leave to remain!

 

We are in touch with several women in Yarl’s Wood who were trafficked for the purposes of prostitution.  Ms C is from Nigeria and fled to the UK after being trafficked to Italy and forced into prostitution there.  She was arrested during an immigration raid and detained in Yarl’s Wood for six months where she suffered a miscarriage because she did not receive medical treatment.  We intervened and her removal was stopped twice; she has now been released and is pursuing her claim.

 

Forthcoming Events.

In September we will be publishing a Dossier compiled jointly with Black Women’s Rape Action Project: Misjudging Rape: Rape and the Gender Guidelines in Asylum Appeals, which examines rulings made by Asylum Judges in rape cases and the extent to which they do or do not comply with the Immigration Appellate Authority’s Asylum Gender Guidelines.

 

For more information and/or if you would like to volunteer, please contact us.