Ensuring that women seeking asylum in the UK are treated with fairness and dignity

We ACT because they… provide women seeking asylum with support and legal advice; educate, lobby, and campaign on issues affecting women seeking asylum; and run training on gender issues in the asylum system.

Asylum Aid work to support people seeking refuge in the UK from persecution and human rights abuses abroad. They also have a particular focus on women seeking asylum who are often overlooked.

The Women’s Project was set up by Asylum Aid as the first of its kind to provide women seeking asylum with free legal advice and representation; one-off advice and referrals to other agencies. Asylum Aid also lobbies and campaigns to push for reform on issues that affect women seeking asylum, as well as training on gender issues in the asylum system. Through the Women’s Project, Asylum Aid also publishes a range of educational materials on women and asylum, including research reports, leaflets and audio guides, and newsletters such as Women’s Asylum News.

Asylum Aid work to bring about large scale change through its advocacy work. This has included establishing the Charter of Rights of Women Seeking Asylum, which sets out minimum standards in the UK asylum system for women fleeing persecution and violence overseas. More recently, the Charter’s Protection Gap Campaign, called for key changes in the UK asylum system to make it fairer for women and girls, with particular attention to those who have experienced violence. Asylum Aid explains ‘Women and girls who have fled the world’s most brutal wars and repressive countries fall through a protection gap in the UK asylum system. Many of them have been raped or have experienced domestic violence, but they are not given the basic protections that we take for granted when it comes to any other woman in this situation.’ Following the campaign, the Home Office produced a new Women’s Asylum Action Plan, which addressed all of the issues the campaign had raised.

The Istanbul Convention is the first international protocol bringing the issues of refugees and Violence Against Women together. If ratified, it would ensure that gender-based violence against women be recognised as a form of persecution. The instrumental work of Asylum Aid shows us that this is necessary to ensure women seeking asylum are treated fairly. Their research indicates that women claiming asylum who were refused, were more likely to get that refusal overturned on appeal than men.

ACT: Sign the petition to ratify the Istanbul Convention and ensure gender-based violence is a recognised form of persecution.

SUPPORT: Donate to Asylum Aid