Decision-making

Many women seeking asylum are refused leave to remain in the UK despite having fled persecution. The nature and seriousness of gender-based persecution is often poorly understood by decision-makers in the Home Office. Recent research by Asylum Aid confirms that decision-making on women’s asylum claims is flawed. Their recent report, Unsustainable: the quality of initial decision-making in women's asylum claims, found that 50% of women’s claims in their sample were overturned on appeal, higher than the average of around 28%, and they noted a “striking failure” of understanding of the persecution from which women flee. The Home Office has itself acknowledged this disproportionate effect on women of poor initial decision-making.

Marjorie: photo by Aliya Mirza

The problem of poor decision-making on women’s asylum claims is compounded by the fact that many asylum seekers face a struggle to access good, or any, legal representation. Restrictions on legal aid and the collapse of Refugee and Migrant Justice and the Immigration Advisory Service have limited the availability of decent legal advice, particularly outside London.  This means that many women are now negotiating a hostile and complicated process without a lawyer to help them.

Marjorie’s story: In Uganda I was active in opposition politics at a grassroots level: working in my village, helping women to know their rights and teaching them reading and writing. I was imprisoned twice. The horror that I experienced in there, you wouldn't wish that on anyone, not even your enemy. I was tortured, I was raped, I was burnt with cigarettes, I was cut with razors, electric shocks: all the horrible things you can think of to get information from someone. Eventually I escaped and came to England. It was scary but I'd been in this torture for some time, and I just wanted to be able to breathe fresh air again. I was refused asylum. It took 6 long years to fight my case through the courts until I was finally given leave to remain.  I would like the Home Office to say sorry for getting it wrong and putting me through that long period of waiting; the anxiety and the fear were so terrible.  

We would like to see an asylum system in which decision-makers approach women's asylum claims with understanding of the persecution from which women flee, and in which all asylum seekers have access to quality legal representation throughout the asylum process.