Women for Refugee Women has prepared briefings for MPs examining the Nationality and Borders Bill, detailing how specific clauses of the Bill will harm women who are seeking safety in the UK.
Clauses 10, 16, 17 and 23: Differential treatment based on mode of arrival and timescale of protection claim
These clauses, if enacted, are likely to punish women who have survived gender-based violence and are unable, through no fault of their own, to disclose their experiences right away.
Women already face significant barriers to the full investigation and recognition of their protection claims. These clauses will only worsen those obstacles.
Clauses 11, 24, and 26: Detention and quasi-detention
These clauses provide for increased use of harmful detention and quasi-detention settings, including offshore detention facilities and large-scale asylum accommodation centres. Clause 24 would also introduce an accelerated appeals procedure for people in detention, which will likely have a harmful impact on survivors of gender-based abuse.
Clauses 29 and 30: Changes to the refugee test
We are very concerned that Clause 29 is likely to have a disproportionate impact on asylum-seeking women who have fled sexual and gender-based violence, and particularly when combined with the changes to the ‘particular social group’ definition in Clause 30. These changes would make it even harder for women who have survived gender-based violence to have their claims properly investigated and recognised.
Clauses 46, 47 & 51: Victims of trafficking
We have real concerns that these changes will make it harder for women and girls, who are victims of trafficking and modern slavery, to be identified and protected.