Domestic Abuse Bill

Joint written evidence submitted by the Step Up Migrant Women Coalition (DAB04)

JOINT SUBMISSION TO THE DOMESTIC ABUSE BILL COMMITTEE THE NEED FOR PROTECTIONS FOR MIGRANT SURVIVORS

This submission represents the views of a number of organisations, [1] working together as members of the Step-Up Migrant Women Coalition, to ensure that the Domestic Abuse Bill provides protection for migrant women. This submission focuses only on provisions we believe the Bill should include which would provide equal protection to migrant survivors of domestic abuse; it does not deal with other aspects of the Bill which our organisations may also have individual or collective positions on.

This submission was compiled by the below organisations on behalf of Step Up Migrant Women Coalition, for further information please contact:

· Amnesty International UK (AIUK)

· End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW)

· Imkaan

· Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS)

· Liberty

· Sisters for Change

· Southall Black Sisters

· Women’s Aid Federation of England

Summary of key recommendations

The Bill should be amended to include:

(1) a principle of non-discrimination that mirrors the language of Article 4(3) of the Istanbul Convention;

(2) a provision to establish safe reporting pathways and a firewall to end data-sharing for immigration enforcement purposes between vital public services and the Home Office, to ensure all survivors can safely report abuse to police and other services without fear of immigration enforcement;

(3) extension of eligibility for the Domestic Violence (DV) Rule and Destitute Domestic Violence Concession (DDVC), so every migrant survivor can access routes to regularise/confirm their immigration status and can secure public funds (which must be provided for at least six months) which are essential for accessing refuge services, safety and support; linked to this, reinstating appeal rights to the Tribunal for DV Rule applications;

(4) provision to address the crisis in funding for refuges and domestic abuse services, particularly specialist services run ‘by and for’ Black, ‘minority ethnic’ (BME) and migrant women, to comply with the government’s human rights obligations.

Introduction

1. The UK Government’s Domestic Abuse Bill (the Bill), while including some important provisions, is overall a disappointing and inadequate solution to a devastating and widespread problem that impacts roughly two million people a year in the UK, the majority of whom are women. The Bill leaves behind society’s most marginalised and isolated survivors of domestic abuse, particularly migrant women. It also fails to fully meet the requirements of the Istanbul Convention [2] (IC), despite the Government’s stated intention to ratify the IC through the introduction of this Bill.

2. Given the wealth of evidence submitted to the Government consultation on the Domestic Abuse Bill demonstrating that women who have insecure immigration status find it virtually impossible to seek protection when experiencing domestic abuse, and the crystal clear language of the IC that protection must be afforded to survivors regardless of immigration status, it is extremely disappointing that migrant women are not mentioned anywhere on the face of this legislation and are offered insignificant concessions in the Government’s package of ‘non-legislative’ commitments in the consultation response.

3. Furthermore, the Government’s response to the Joint Committee on the draft Domestic Abuse Bill (the Joint Committee), regarding its clear and robust recommendations to extend protection to migrant survivors and ensure they are able to report safely [3] , is wholly inadequate. The government has not incorporated any of the Joint Committee’s recommendations regarding migrant women into the published Bill, instead announcing a review into "the overall response to migrant victims of domestic abuse". Notwithstanding the lack of transparency or published Terms of Reference for this review, it is anyway clear that the Government has now had ample time to consider a wealth of evidence demonstrating both the discrimination migrant women face in accessing protection, and the steps required to reverse that discrimination.

4. If this Bill does not promote equality, security, liberty and dignity for all survivors of abuse, it will fail to fully incorporate the IC and would also risk violating the UK’s domestic and international human rights obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The reform measures proposed in this submission would go some way to remedying the defects of the Bill and crucially protect thousands of survivors of domestic abuse in this country.

NON-DISCRIMINATION PRINCIPLE

5. Article 4(3) of the IC sets out that the provisions in the treaty "shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, gender, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, state of health, disability, marital status, migrant or refugee status, or any other status." The right to be free from discrimination is also protected by Article 14 ECHR when read together with other ECHR rights, particularly Articles 3 and 8 in the context of domestic abuse. We recommend a non-discriminatory approach is put on a statutory footing in this Bill to mark the importance of this as a guiding legal principle. The introduction of a non-discrimination clause was recommended by the Joint Committee. The aim of this clause is to strengthen the legislative framework that requires public authorities to effectively respond to all victims of domestic abuse.

6. The Government’s consultation on ‘Transforming the Response to Domestic Abuse’ puts a significant emphasis on the need to improve protection for victims but does not meaningfully acknowledge or address the significant additional barriers faced by migrant women in accessing that protection. Actually, the proposals set out in the Bill do not reflect the commitment in any comprehensive or effective manner for any survivor. Its focus is predominantly on criminal justice measures and fails to centre the crucial role of prevention work and the provision of services, as foregrounded in the Home Office’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls 2016-2020 Strategy Refresh [4] .

7. The exclusion of protections for migrant women is notable given that the Government in part recognises some of the issues migrant women face – in particular accessing refuge and welfare support; and safely reporting abuse to public services, including the police. Encouraging women to come forward and support the charging and prosecution of perpetrators without ensuring that adequate protection is available for them increases the risk of further harm and their vulnerability. When victims of domestic abuse are adequately supported by specialist services, they are less likely to return to a situation of violence [5] and / or drop out of the criminal justice process altogether. Migrant women face additional barriers because abusers commonly use women’s fears of immigration enforcement and separation from their children to control them. Research [6] has pointed to particular vulnerabilities of migrant women, including:
• a higher proportion of homelessness,
• a greater financial impact of abuse because of their own inability to work on account of their immigration status,
• being disproportionately affected by lack of resources for support when facing forms of abuse such as FGM, forced marriage and so called ‘honour-based’ violence
• being more likely to report multiple perpetrators
• being more likely to face a justice gap, with police not pursuing criminal charges.

8. A non-discrimination clause in the Bill, reflecting the language in Article 4(3) of the IC, seeks to confront the existing two-tier system of safety that exists for migrant and BME women, and demands that public authorities effectively respond to all victims of domestic abuse as a matter of law, thereby incorporating a central principle of the IC into the very legislation intended to enable its ratification.

SAFE REPORTING PATHWAYS

9. Article 50 of the IC sets out that "Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that the responsible law enforcement agencies respond to all forms of violence covered by the scope of this Convention promptly and appropriately by offering adequate and immediate protection to victims" - read with Article 4(3) this must apply regardless of immigration status.

10. The Government’s ‘hostile environment’ agenda has prioritised immigration enforcement over the need to provide safety and security to survivors of domestic abuse. Invasive data-sharing agreements between public services [7] and Immigration Enforcement prevent survivors with insecure immigration status from accessing the services they need, as they often fear reporting violence due to the real risk of detention or deportation. [8] As part of the Step Up Migrant Women coalition [9] , we are particularly concerned by the police’s routine referral of victims of crime to the Home Office – considering 60% of police forces have admitted to doing so [10] . Research [11] revealed that 2 in 3 migrant women who experienced domestic abuse feared that at the moment of reporting, police would not support them because of their insecure immigration status. In one account, a survivor undergoing physical and psychological abuse who reported to police on 3 occasions, was told that she was an ‘illegal’ and that she should refrain from calling again; in another case, the police arrested a survivor as she reported in her local police station and was detained and questioned by immigration officials. [12]

11. Liberty and Southall Black Sisters have submitted the first police super-complaint [13] , regarding data sharing between the police and immigration forces, which details a number of cases in which survivors have been subject to arrest and detention, instead of having crimes committed against them properly investigated (including a pregnant rape victim being arrested on immigration charges after going to the police).

12. The Government’s own guidance on coercive control recognises that perpetrators of abuse often leverage immigration status as a tool of coercive control [14] , by using the threat of deportation to prevent victims from reporting violence and confiscating victims’ vital documentation and paperwork. This leaves survivors fleeing violence in an impossible position – where they are forced to choose between the risk of detention/deportation or staying in a situation of violence. In one case [15] , a survivor who left her abusive husband found out that he had been lying about managing her immigration paperwork, and as a result she had overstayed her visa. She had a real fear of detention or deportation – particularly as a victim of Female Genital Mutilation who was terrified her daughters would be at risk of being cut if they were removed to Nigeria. The precarious nature of her immigration status, as leveraged by the perpetrator, left her in a state of uncertainty and at very high risk of further abuse.

13. The Government acknowledges in its response to the Joint Committee’s report the very clear recommendation to separate reporting of crime from immigration control. However in response the Government merely refers to ongoing work to better implement the existing National Police Chiefs’ Guidance, which contradictorily states that survivors should be treated "first and foremost…as a victim" but also that it would be "wholly appropriate" for an officer to notify immigration enforcement if they become aware that an individual is an "illegal immigrant".

14. This is an entirely inadequate response to the reality that such data-sharing schemes not only conflict with existing domestic policy to prioritise the needs of victims, but in fact potentially violate the Government’s international human rights obligations. The CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendation 35 on gender-based violence (2017) calls on states to repeal "…restrictive immigration laws that discourage women, including migrant domestic workers, from reporting this violence…" [16] and in its most recent report examining the UK, the Committee also recommended that, "asylum-seeking women, migrants and women with insecure immigration status are able to seek effective protection and support services without fear of having their immigration status reported to authorities…" [17]