Our new research, A Decade of Harm: Survivors of Gender-based Violence Locked Up in Immigration Detention, shows that women who have fled gender-based violence, including rape, domestic violence, forced marriage and sexual exploitation, are locked up in immigration detention, causing profound and long-lasting damage to their mental health.

The report, designed and carried out by a team of seven women with personal experience of the UK’s asylum system, uncovered shocking new findings:

❌ Male detention centre staff are still watching women in intimate situations, including whilst showering, getting dressed, or using the toilet, despite the Home Office banning this practice in 2016.

❌ Women are subject to intrusive and degrading practices by male staff, including through the use of ‘constant supervision’ and through using male staff to ‘search’ women, despite the ban on this.

❌ The unifying factor across asylum-seeking women in detention is their experience of gender-based violence; as corroborated in our research spanning a decade.

The impact of detention on women’s mental health is particularly damaging, of women surveyed:

❌ 85% felt anxious or depressed

❌ 85% felt less than human

❌ 80% felt they weren’t valued by UK society

❌ 75% felt hopeless

❌ 65% felt suicidal

Yet, it is entirely pointless. A recent Freedom of Information request by WRW revealed that in the year ending June 2024, 89% of women seeking asylum in detention were released back into the community to continue with their asylum case, demonstrating the pointlessness of detaining women.   

But there is now a clear opportunity for change.

Since coming into power, the Government has made welcome commitments to prioritise survivors of gender-based violence and to ensure they receive the support they need. The Government has also recognised the huge harm prison inflicts on women who have already survived serious trauma and violence, making promises to reduce the women’s prison population and to prioritise alternatives to prison sentences. Yet, the Government has not similarly recognised the harms inflicted on survivors of gender-based violence in detention.

It is essential that that the Government includes asylum-seeking survivors within these commitments. Otherwise, a two-tier approach will develop, with women seeking asylum – most of whom are from racialised backgrounds –  treated as less deserving and left behind.

Women for Refugee Women calls on the Government to include refugee and asylum-seeking women within its commitments by: 

(1) Ending the use of immigration detention for women;

(2) Implementing a new women’s alternative to detention scheme.

By doing so, the Government can prevent women seeking asylum from being placed at further risk of harm in immigration detention.

Agnes Tanoh, Spokesperson Facilitator at Women for Refugee Women, who was detained for over three months at Yarl’s Wood detention centre, says:  

“When civil war broke out in my country, my life was in danger, I had no choice but to flee. When I came here, I was hoping to be safe and to start a new life but, one day when I went to my regular reporting appointment with the Home Office, I was arrested and taken to Yarl’s Wood. I was so scared that I could be taken back to a country where I would be killed. I couldn’t sleep. I felt sick because of the insomnia and stress. 

I was detained at Yarl’s Wood for more than three months. Eventually, I was released, and I was made homeless. After seven difficult years, I was finally granted refugee status and the protection I needed. Although my life is moving on, I still remember what it feels like to be detained. The way I was treated gave me mental health issues, when what I needed was help and support. I know how detention destroys a woman. I know the pain it causes. Women seeking asylum need protection, not to be locked up. This needs to change now before more women like me are harmed.”

The research team of seven women with experience of the UK’s asylum system – Anne Marie Munene, Christine Harris, Deborah Rest, Etracy Rukwava, Goldie Joseph, Hadnet Tesfom Habtemariam and Kaffy Kazep – say: 

“As our report shows, survivors of rape and other forms of gender-based violence including domestic violence and sexual exploitation are routinely locked up in immigration detention. This retraumatises women who have already been made vulnerable by their previous experiences of violence and abuse, and further damages their self-esteem.

 There is no justification for women’s detention. Alongside the harm it causes, for most women detention is completely pointless: 89% of women seeking asylum are released to continue with their cases in the community. So why were they detained in the first place?

Locking up women who have experienced rape, domestic abuse and sexual exploitation goes against the Government’s commitment to provide support to survivors of gender-based violence. Why are asylum-seeking women being excluded from this commitment? Aren’t they worthy of care and support?”

Andrea Vukovic, Co-Director of Women for Refugee Women, says:  

“Our new research uncovers the extremely worrying gap between Home Office policy and what is happening to women in practice in immigration detention centres.

Despite the Home Office ban on male detention centre staff watching women in intimate situations – including whilst showering, getting dressed, or using the toilet – our research found that 71% of women subject to ‘constant supervision’ were still being watched by male staff. The persistence of these intrusive and degrading practices, which were banned by the Home Office nine years ago, is highly worrying and suggests they are deeply entrenched within detention centres.

Our research also demonstrates that immigration detention is not a necessary or inevitable part of the asylum system. As evidenced in two ‘alternative to detention’ pilots run by the Home Office, people’s asylum claims can be resolved in the community, without the use of detention. We urge the Government to implement a new women’s alternative to detention scheme, to support survivors of gender-based violence to resolve their asylum cases within our communities, with the support they need. Doing so would support the Government’s wider commitment to support survivors of gender-based violence and to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG).”

For media enquiries, please contact our Head of Campaigns, Carenza Arnold on carenza@refugeewomen.co.uk or +44 (0)7518 397761. See our press release here.