Women seeking asylum are living through a system designed by people who have no experience of what it is like to be a woman seeking asylum. The most recent reforms of the asylum system, proposed through the New Plan for Immigration, are no exception. When the New Plan for Immigration was announced in March 2021, the government committed to protecting vulnerable women and children. However, women with first-hand experience of the asylum system feel their views and experiences were not considered when this plan was developed.
By contrast, this report aims to bring the experiences of women seeking asylum to the forefront of asylum reform. If women with lived experience had been consulted when devising previous asylum policies or the New Plan for Immigration, research papers like this would not need to exist.
I cannot recount the number of emotionally overwhelming moments I have experienced while trying to gather my thoughts to write this foreword. It is because this report consolidates the harrowing experiences of many high-calibre women who have had their wings broken and hopes crushed while going through an asylum process that seems endless. I can resonate with this. However, as one of the long-standing members of the VOICES Network, I know that speaking about our lived experiences has only made us feel stronger. When the situation you face is outside of your control, the only control you have is how you use your voice.
When I arrived as a person seeking refuge in the UK, I did not know what I was committing myself to – the next seven years of uncertainties, rejections, redundancy, stagnation and destitution. My life completely flipped in a matter of days, from living a comfortable life to having to flee and becoming a person who felt invisible in the UK, not even part of the society.
This report is a collection of the unheard cries and unwritten pains of many women who are stripped of their rights to be themselves – instead they have their stories disbelieved and are reduced only to a label: ‘asylum seeker’.
The research was co-designed with women who have first-hand experience of seeking asylum in the UK, who organically curated and shaped the research questions, and conducted workshops and in-depth interviews with fellow women. We adopted a co-production approach where the British Red Cross worked collaboratively with Ambassadors of the VOICES Network by sharing equal power, and worked towards achieving the same goal – to amplify women’s voices in the reform of asylum policy.
The main recommendation from this research is that the government must co-produce asylum policy with the people these policies affect, with women seeking asylum. This report has been led by women with first-hand experience of seeking asylum. Women who have developed detailed recommendations for change – on the asylum interview process, access to healthcare, education, housing and more.
Read this report and you will find insights and recommendations that can be acted on now to make the asylum system safer, fairer, and more sensitive towards women.
Swami Vivekananda, an Indian spiritual leader and reformer once said, “The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women”. Failing to take into consideration the expert voices of women, when designing policies that would impact their lives, means failing as a nation. Sharlu Rajen, Ambassador for the VOICES Network
Download the report in pdf format from https://www.redcross.org.uk/-/media/documents/about-us/research-publications/refugee-support/we-want-to-be-strong-womens-experiences-of-seeking-asylum-in-the-uk.pdf
HERitage stall this Saturday 29th January at St Cuthbert's hall, Amble. Come along, see you there