Misjudging rape

Misjudging Asylum, Rape and Detention – 17 July 2007

John Mc Donnell MP and Lord Avebury hosted a packed meeting in the House of Commons which brought together women asylum seekers, MPs, Lords, lawyers, community and breastfeeding activists and other supporters to highlight the obstacles rape survivors face in getting their claims recognized. WAR’s speaker highlighted research to which we contributed, which found that 70% of women in Yarl’s Wood are rape survivors*, despite Home Office guidelines which say survivors of torture should not be detained. Many have never felt able to speak about rape before they contact us, or have been ignored or disbelieved when they did. Barrister Louise Hooper from Garden Court Chambers warned that solicitors will not be able to afford to take on “complex” cases when proposed legal aid cuts take effect in the autumn.

A new study says that women asylum seekers who claim to have been raped in their own countries are rarely believed in British courts.

Laura Smith reports
Wednesday December 6, 2006, Guardian

When Amanda stepped off a boat in Southampton, earlier this year, she had, she says, just escaped a police cell in West Africa where she had been raped, sexually assaulted and tortured by guards and fellow prisoners. Suffering from severe abdominal pain and the trauma of leaving her two young children behind, she believed she had reached safe ground. But days after her arrival in Britain, she was taken to a detention centre and locked up for a month, during which time her asylum claim was rejected.

With no legal representation at her appeal, Amanda was forced to relive her ordeal before a judge she found hostile, and who accused her of lying about the rape. The appeal was turned down.