Asylum from Rape

 Please click on the link below to read article in PDF format.  

Motion F26 ‘Tackling Violence Against Women’, 19 September 2011

We are glad that the Liberal Democrats are highlighting some important issues that Women Against Rape has been working on for a number of years. These issues are: the rights of rape survivors seeking asylum; an end to the criminalisation of children in prostitution; an end to the prosecution of rape victims accused of making a false allegation; and an end to the imprisonment of women for non-violent offences.

Specifically, we urge Conference to support Section 2 of Motion F26: ‘Protecting victims’. 
[See Lib Dem Motion F26 on p30 of the Conference Agenda]

Women’s Views on News
http://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2011/06/uk-home-office-fail-to-meet-rap...
Posted by Ivana Davidovic on June 30, 2011 ·

Left: Sian Evans and Flavia Titti in front of the Immigration Tribunal

Ivana Davidovic
WVoN co-editor

Flavia Titti has not seen her children since a fateful day in 2002 when she was forced to flee Rwanda in order to save her life and, as she believed then, the lives of her three children whom she left with a trusted family friend.

What she thought would be a short-term separation has turned into a protracted Kafkaesque agony.

APPEAL HEARING: 10am THURSDAY 30 JUNE 2011
ASYLUM & IMMIGRATION TRIBUNAL, TAYLOR HOUSE, 88 ROSEBERRY AVENUE, LONDON EC1R 4QU. Nearest tube Angel

Jeto Titti’s case to be reunited with her son is coming to court on 30 June. Five long and agonising years have gone by since Ms Titti found that her children were alive and safe, after she had been forced to flee from Rwanda without them. Your support is needed now more than ever. Despite her own terrible situation, Ms Titti has been dedicated to helping other women. She co-founded the All African Women’s Group’s (AAWG) Mothers’ Campaign for Family Reunion to press for family reunion so that mothers like her would no longer suffer the torture of being separated from their children.

Breastfed baby taken from mother for six days, a move she says trust denied her right to challenge

Karen McVeigh
guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 June 2011 18.42 BST

A breastfeeding mother whose newborn baby was forcibly taken from her and put into care for six days is seeking a judicial review over alleged unlawful treatment during a crucial bonding period with her daughter.

Verna Joseph, who has a history of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, says she was pushed to the ground, restrained by security guards, and her baby taken in full public view during a scuffle at King George hospital in Redbridge to which police were called.

She was then transferred by ambulance to Goodmayes hospital, North-East London NHS foundation trust, in Ilford, but was not told until several hours later that she was being compulsorily admitted for an assessment under the Mental Health Act.

Please find below an appeal for help from Ms Titti, one of WAR’s most dedicated volunteers.

Dear friends,

As you may know, I left my three precious children in Rwanda after soldiers came to our house, killed my husband and attacked me. I knew my children would be safer without me, so I fled alone. I battled for nine years suffering bad legal representation, detention, threatened removal, destitution, deprivation of medical treatment, and terrible mental anxiety about my children now 16, 18, and 20, who have had to grow up without their mother's love and protection. I am now fighting for the children to join me but so far they’ve been refused.

Our pain as mothers and children at being separated is completely invisible. The Home Office never recognises us as mothers and the public don’t know the trauma we go through every day of our lives - not knowing how our children are, whether they have food, how they are coping.

Mothers win right to family life in the UK

Two mothers, both of whom have lived in the UK for over 10 years and whose children were born here, have resisted efforts to return them to Jamaica and have now won the right to stay in the UK under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act (Article 8, the right to respect for private and family life.)  One woman took part in the 40 day hunger strike at Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre to bring attention to the injustice of her case.

Jeto Titti’s long struggle to be reunited with her children has met another obstacle. She has to apply for a visa for her middle child, Josh, in the next couple of weeks because on 14 November he turns 18 and children who are 18 or over lose the right to join their parents in the UK. The visa costs £644. Jeto has no savings, a paltry weekly income of £64 a week and due to severe ill health is unable to work. We know that many supporters will be feeling pinched financially, but Jeto has no other way of raising this vital money and is therefore compelled to ask for your help.