Research we helped carry out found that 70% of women detained in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre are rape survivors*. Most women detained there can’t get the independent medical or psychiatric reports needed to document their experiences and have poor or no legal representation. Women report lack of medical care, even where serious health problems are concerned, as well as racism and abuse from staff. BWRAP and WAR help run a daily rota of volunteers who help women in detention to pursue their claims and access services they desperately need. We helped a woman win £38 000 in compensation after she had been unlawfully detained. We have stopped removals of women and their families, often at the last minute.
*A Bleak House of our times, Legal Action for Women, 2005
