Domestic Abuse Bill

Written evidence submitted by Step-Up Migrant Women Coalition (DAB19)

JOINT SUBMISSION TO THE DOMESTIC ABUSE BILL COMMITTEE A FAIR SYSTEM URGENTLY NEEDED FOR ALL

This submission represents the views of the organisations listed below and on the last page, 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

· 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 in line with Article 4(3) of the Istanbul Convention to ensure all victims of domestic abuse have equal access to protection and support regardless of immigration status (this should apply to any statutory duty on local or public authorities contained in the Bill);

(2) a provision to establish safe reporting mechanisms and an end to 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 control;

(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) while doing so;

(4) a provision to ensure all victims of domestic abuse can access public funds and vital, often life-saving support and routes to safety; and that no survivor, whatever her immigration status, is treated as being in breach of her leave conditions for accessing those funds;

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

Introduction

1. Domestic abuse is a devastating and widespread problem that impacts roughly two million people a year in the UK, the majority of whom are women. We welcome the commitment of this government to tackling the issue, however the reintroduced Domestic Abuse Bill (the Bill) does not address the significant inequality inherent in the current system, which is almost totally inaccessible by society’s most marginalised and isolated victims, particularly migrant women.

2. The COVID-19 pandemic, which is exacerbating and worsening domestic abuse, has exposed the desperate need for a fair, adequately funded system of protection and support, led by the women’s sector and particularly ‘by and for’ Black, Minority Ethnic (BME) and migrant organisations [1] . The Government should respond urgently to the current crisis (the Step Up Migrant Women Coalition members have collectively and individually written to the Home Secretary calling for a number of emergency response measures [2] ) but must also ensure the Bill introduces a fit-for-purpose, fair system for the long term.

3. The measures necessary to achieve a fair system of protection for all victims are clear and have been recommended consistently by the women’s sector, service providers and human rights organisations. Those recommendations were supported by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the draft Domestic Abuse Bill, in its report of 14 June 2019, which made clear and robust recommendations to the Government to extend protection to migrant survivors and ensure their ability to report safely. During the Bill’s Second Reading (28 April 2020) cross-party MPs made impassioned cases for the Bill to ensure migrant women’s ability to escape situations of abuse.

4. Very regrettably, the Government has not incorporated any of these recommendations into the Bill. A wealth of evidence has been submitted to the Government consultation on the Domestic Abuse Bill and the Home Office in its subsequent review of measures to protect migrant women, which demonstrates the barriers that migrant women without secure immigration status face and how they find it virtually impossible to seek protection when experiencing domestic abuse. Furthermore, the Istanbul Convention (IC) [3] , which the Government intends to ratify through the introduction of this Bill, makes it crystal clear that protection must be afforded to all survivors without discrimination, including based on immigration status.

5. It is therefore extremely disappointing to note that migrant women are not mentioned anywhere on the face of this legislation and have been offered insignificant concessions in the Government’s package of ‘non-legislative’ commitments in the consultation response and since, including the £1.5 million pilot project announced by the Minister in the Bill’s Second Reading debate. Southall Black Sisters have prepared a detailed briefing outlining why this latest announcement, even as an interim measure, is an untenable and inappropriate solution to the urgent need to protect all migrant women subject to abuse (Annex A). The proposal for a pilot project to conduct an assessment of the level of need completely fails to appreciate the wealth of evidence that already exists as well as the urgency and the seriousness of the risk of abuse and destitution that abused migrant women currently face. The briefing paper also shows how the amount of £1.5 million set aside for the pilot project is simply insufficient to support women and children with no recourse to public funds. They set out their alternative estimation of the costs likely to be involved in their Domestic Abuse Bill briefing paper 2 [4] .

6. 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 [5] , was wholly inadequate, announcing a review into "the overall response to migrant victims of domestic abuse". This review has yet to be published and instead the ‘pilot project’ has been announced. The delay in publishing the conclusions of the review is completely unsatisfactory, particularly given how consistent and unified the message has been from the sector – delivered multiple times now through the course of a series of consultations, inquiries, meetings and reviews – that the only way to ensure the Bill is compliant with the IC and creates a fair system for all, is to adopt the measures recommended in this submission.

7. We urge Committee members to amend the Bill rather than rely on the Home Office review resulting in any substantive change in the protection available to migrant women. The review is highly unlikely to introduce any legislative change, given the Government will not publish its conclusions before Committee Stage. While some of the measures proposed in this submission could be achieved by policy change alone, the Bill itself needs to place protection for some of the most marginalised victims in our society on a statutory footing. Moreover, if the Government was minded to make the policy changes we suggest, we cannot see why there would be any reason to wait to do so.

8. This Bill must promote equality, security, liberty and dignity for all survivors of abuse. To do this it must fully incorporate the IC or 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 creating a fair system that all survivors can access, whatever their gender, their age or where they are from.

NON-DISCRIMINATION PRINCIPLE

9. 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. To ensure the protection and support of all victims, regardless of immigration status, we recommend a non-discrimination clause which applies to any statutory duty on local or public authorities is added to this Bill.

10. 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. It addresses a crucial gap in protection for migrant victims subject to multiple forms of discrimination and barriers to accessing support. The Equality Act (2010) which prohibits discrimination (whether direct or indirect) against people who possess one of the protected characteristics, does not include migrant or refugee status as a characteristic.

11. The Government’s consultation on ‘Transforming the Response to Domestic Abuse’ placed significant emphasis on the need to improve protection for victims, but this Bill does not meaningfully address the significant additional barriers faced by migrant women in accessing that protection. The proposals set out in the Bill also fail 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 [6] .

12. 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 to 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 [7] 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 [8] has pointed to particular vulnerabilities of migrant women, including:
• a higher proportion of homelessness [9] ,
• 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.

13. Clause 53 of the Bill places a duty on local authorities to deliver support to victims in safe accommodation, such as refuge. Whilst this will benefit some victims of domestic abuse, the majority of victims will continue to remain in the family home which is why a wider duty on public authorities to commission specialist support in the community is essential. Just 5% of refuge spaces listed last year were accessible to woman with NRPF [10] . The local authority duty alone will not tackle the barriers and challenges that migrant survivors face in accessing refuge, unless there is a clear legal commitment to equal access which would be achieved by introducing a non-discrimination clause.

14. A non-discrimination clause in the Bill, reflecting the language in Article 4(3) of the IC, ensures all survivors, regardless of characteristics such as age or immigration status, are entitled to access support that would provide protection from abuse, It confronts a two-tier system of safety that exists for migrant women, and demands that public authorities effectively respond to all victims of domestic abuse as a matter of law, incorporating a central principle of the IC into the very legislation intended to enable its ratification.

SAFE REPORTING PATHWAYS

15. 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.

16. 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 [11] and Immigration Enforcement prevent survivors without secure immigration status from accessing the services they need, as they often fear reporting violence due to the real risk of detention or deportation. [12] As part of the Step Up Migrant Women coalition [13] , 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 [14] . Research [15] 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 lack of secure 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. [16]

17. Liberty and Southall Black Sisters have submitted the first police super-complaint [17] , 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). The policy is also now subject to a a legal challenge brought by a user of Southall Black Sisters services against the Metropolitan Police, on the basis that it is potentially discriminatory and unlawful.

18. The Government’s own guidance on coercive control recognises that perpetrators of abuse often leverage immigration status as a tool of coercive control [18] , 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 destitution/detention/deportation or staying in a situation of violence. In one case [19] , 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 weaponised by the perpetrator, left her in a state of uncertainty and at very high risk of further abuse.

19. 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".

20. 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…" [20] 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…" [21]