IKWRO

IKWRO has for over seven years worked with some of the least powerful individuals in the UK: women from ethnic minorities who are often non-citizens. As an organization we provide advocacy for women originating from some of the most politically troubled areas in the Middle East: Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, many of whom are caught up in the asylum system, many escaping family violence, ‘honour’ killing and forced marriage in countries where women live circumscribed lives, and men use violence against women with near impunity under patriarchal customs and legal codes which reinforce women’s secondary status, often justified by reference to ‘sharia’law, a justification for discrimination which is increasingly being used inthe UK.

The asylum system has recently been criticized as whistleblowers revealed a culture of hostility within the United Kingdom Border Authority (UKBA), including the mockery of caseworkers who accept asylum claims, and Human Rights Watch criticized the UKBA’s use of the ‘detained fast track’ asylum system, particularly as it affects women, which has also been noted with concern by UNCHR, giving claimants just three days to make a case and two days to appeal. In one of the cases highlighted by Human Rights Watch, an Algerian woman was fleeing a potential ‘honour’ killing, the evidence of which was a letter in Arabic. Despite several requests, the letter was never translated, and the woman was deported without being given a chance to plead her case. HRW have not been able to contact the woman since she was returned. The situation can be particularly dire for women: as Asylum Aid point out, there are at least 26 rules within the UK criminal justice system for dealing with women to take account of issues such as rape, pregnancy and other gender issues. Within the asylum system, there are just two, which are rarely enforced in any case. Detention for asylum seekers is Yarl’s Wood is beset with allegations of violence against women on hunger strike within the facility. In some situations, women are housed alongside men, they can feel isolated, intimidated and depressed: in Tinsley House, it is possible for a single woman to be forced to share accommodation with over a hundred men. Some women face sexual abuse within the asylum system itself. UKBA is similarly accused of flouting the rights of children, and for many, including the Royal Colleges of paediatricians, GPs and psychiatrists, the imprisonment of hundreds of children within the asylum system is inhumane and deeply harmful.

This all takes place in a climate of increasing vitriol against asylum seekers, based in myths created by the press and left unchallenged by politicians, and where the procedures for deciding asylum cases are shambolic and inadequate, with an immense backlog, encouraging caseworkers to charge through, rejecting a majority of first claims to meet targets and leaving the real decision-making procedure to the appeals, which is traumatic for asylum seekers who are left hanging. The tension of awaiting an asylum decisions can be the hardest for mothers: for those at risk of ‘honour’ killings for example, they are aware that if they are killed their children will suffer the stigma of their mother’s ‘shame’ for the rest of their lives and may well face abuse and violence without a mother’s protection; that daughters may face forced marriage and genital mutilation.

IKWRO have worked in many cases where those who have quite literally the power of life or death over another human being make illogical and arbitrary decisions based in extremely shallow knowledge of the claimant’s country of origin. Moves to reduce asylum often have a political motivation, based in a desire to look ‘tough’ and an intention to deter people from entering the country; however, this is misplaced as a large majority of asylum seekers did not choose to come to the UK at all and few have any advance knowledge of the country or the circumstances for asylum seekers. As making the asylum system painfully difficult has little effect as a deterrent, it only functions as a punishment for people who have committed no crime; who on the contrary are escaping crimes against themselves. When it comes to arguing a case, it is difficult for women to prove they face risks within the family, such as ‘honour’ killings, FGM or forced marriage and other forms of gender-based persecution. Asylum decisions frequently assume that women can resettle in another part of their country of origin as easily as a man can, even when women living without male guardians within many countries,particularly those countries which our clients come from, are subject to isolation and harassment and may be completely without any form of financial support once returned, and fail to recognize that for women who have been living without a male guardian in a country which is assumed to be ‘decadent’ and where sexual activity is unregulated, women risk violence and abuse if returned. The asylum system as a whole is not designed for women’s experiences and women are treated unfairly within a system which is already unfair.

Women may face destitution in the UK under the ‘no recourse to public funding’ rule: such as women who have come into the country on a marriage visa are not entitled to certain state benefits which means they cannot get a refuge place in the case of domestic violence, meaning that young married women may be trapped in violent relationships with no available help even if they seek it. This causes untold misery, leaving women the choice between destitution and violence.

On International Women’s Day, a day of celebration of women’s achievements, we seek to draw attention to asylum seeking women as the most vulnerable people in the country facing triple discrimination on the basis of gender, of race and of citizenship. Women seeking asylum are often suffering from immense mental trauma and depression, having lost both their families and their countries and overwhelmed by a labyrinthine bureaucracy, impoverishment and mistreatment, and racial abuse, in an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion. Seeking asylum is not a crime; seeking asylum is a human right. While we celebrate women’s achievements on this day, we cannot forget the women outside, women who, in their attempts to escape violence and persecution to end up facing violence, insecurity, misery, poverty and hatred in the UK through an illogical and even cruel asylum system, and a xenophobic and prejudiced public.