The Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, released today 18 December 2025, claims to apply to all survivors of VAWG, including migrants, women seeking asylum and women with refugee status. It acknowledges that intersectionality and marginalisation shape women’s experiences of abuse and even recognises that fear of criminalisation and immigration enforcement can be weaponised against migrant and asylum-seeking women.

These words matter – but they are not enough.

Until the Government acknowledges that its own hostile asylum policies perpetuate and exacerbate violence against refugee and asylum-seeking women, it will never truly meet its commitments to tackle VAWG.

Beyond a few references, refugee and asylum-seeking women are almost entirely absent from the strategy. This omission is not just a gap – it is failure that will continue to put women’s lives at risk.

Here’s what the strategy ignores:

No recognition of immigration or asylum status as a risk factor: Refugee and asylum-seeking women face unique dangers and experience particular forms of VAWG, compounded by hostile asylum policies that enforce destitution and ban work – conditions that push women into further harm, exploitation, and abuse.

No commitment to safe accommodation: Women in asylum accommodation such as hotels, report sexual violence, harassment and neglect – with little action, repercussion for offenders, or support for survivors. Without action, these harms will persist. And the latest Government announcement to expand the use of large-scale, isolated accommodation sites such as former prisons, airports or military barracks will only exacerbate the existing harms faced by women.

Barriers to support: Fear of immigration enforcement, lack of entitlement to or difficulties in access to legal aid, and absence of culturally and linguistically appropriate services keep refugee and asylum-seeking women trapped in abuse. For women subject to No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) conditions, this can be even more difficult to access. Our research over more than a decade has consistently shown that women who are forced into destitution are trapped in abusive or unwanted relationships, and some are even turning to sex work to make ends meet.

When refugee and asylum-seeking women are made invisible in policy, they are invisible in services, funding and commissioning. Barriers remain unchallenged. Hostile asylum policies continue to push women into further harm, exploitation, and abuse. This is unacceptable.

We demand action:

1. The explicit inclusion of refugee and asylum-seeking women in the VAWG strategy – anything less creates a two-tier system where asylum-seeking survivors are treated as less-deserving and left behind.

2. Data collection on VAWG and the success of this strategy, must include refugee and asylum-seeking women – because what isn’t counted, doesn’t count.

3. Minimum safety standards for women in asylum accommodation, to prevent violence and abuse and to create appropriate pathways to support for survivors.

4. An end to hostile asylum policies that push women into further harm. Current policies create conditions of destitution, isolation, and fear that directly increase women’s vulnerability to violence and exploitation. Without reforming these hostile policies, any promise to protect all women from VAWG will remain hollow.

Women for Refugee Women calls on the Government to turn words into action. Until refugee and asylum-seeking women are named, counted, and protected, the promise of safety for all women remains broken.