No recourse, no safety
A report, published March 2008, by Southall Black Sisters and Amnesty International, reveals how hundreds of women are trapped in a cycle of abuse, unable to access basic levels of protection and support, simply because of their vulnerable immigration status.
Campaign to abolish no recourse to public funds
The Women's Resource Centre is part of a coalition of organisations working to highlight the devastating impact of this restriction on access to public funds on a particularly vulnerable group of women. The coalition includes Amnesty International UK, Ashiana Network, Apna Haq Project (Rotherham), BAWSO (Wales), British Red Cross, Greater London Domestic Violence Project, Imkaan, IMECE Turkish Speaking Women's Group, Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO), Kalayaan, Newham Asian Women’s Project, Refuge, Roshni Asian Women’s Resource Centre (Sheffield), Scottish Women's Aid, Shakti Women’s Aid, Southall Black Sisters, The Kiran Project, Welsh Women's Aid, Women’s Aid (England), Women's Aid Federation of Northern Ireland, and Women’s Resource Centre.
We call on the government to:
- Abolish the 'no recourse' requirement for abused women who have insecure status.
- Provide a special fund pending long term solutions, to enable all women to have living expenses and have access to refuges and local authority accommodation pending a final decision on applications to remain in the UK.
- Fast track applications to remain in the UK (process within 2 months) where there is prima facie evidence of domestic violence.
- Reform the Domestic Violence Rule so that all types of evidence of domestic violence are accepted.
- Extend the Domestic Violence Rule to all abused women with an insecure immigration status and introduce similar protection for trafficked women subjected to sexual and economic abuse and to overseas domestic workers experiencing violence from employers.
- Provide adequate levels of legal aid so that there is access to good quality legal advice and assistance.