Migrant survivors suffer forms of violence made possible only by their status as migrants. This is a well-known reality to the domestic violence services that work with migrants: immigration enforcement enables domestic abuse. In this post, we will explore the ways in which the State allows abusers to act with impunity, while handing them the tools to inflict violence against migrant women. 

The state makes migrants vulnerable as a matter of policy. Many migrants have a No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) clause in their immigration status, which means they cannot access public funds such as basic welfare or housing benefits. Most refuge housing is only accessible to survivors who can access the housing benefit. This policy means that leaving an abusive relationship is more difficult for migrant survivors. 

Specialist organizations such as Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS) and Safety4Sisters (S4S) have extensively documented the mistreatment that migrant survivors face at the hands of police and social services. Social services have been known to deny support to migrant survivors, and in some disturbing cases have threatened to take their children away (LAWRS 2019). It’s important to outline the layered entrapment faced by migrant women as a result of the state’s hostile environment policy: 

1. Inability to safely report crimes: When reporting domestic violence to the police, women have been arrested, racially discriminated against, and have been questioned about their immigration status. 

2. Suspicious, hostile treatment: It is common for the police to not believe migrant survivors, and to believe their UK settled abusers instead (LAWRS 2019, S4S 2016). 



3. Prioritising deportation over safety: The police have been known to share information about victims and witnesses of crime with the Home Office for the purpose of immigration enforcement.

As a consequence of the policies and behaviour of statutory agencies, migrant survivors are less likely to receive help, and they are less likely to seek help (LAWRS 2019). The fear of not being believed, destitution, detainment, and deportation looms large over their lives (LAWRS 2019). 



In the hands of abusers, fear of immigration enforcement becomes a tool of coercion and control to use against survivors (S4S 2016). One in four women who worked with LAWRS had been told that their children would be taken away if they reported their abuser, and more than half had been told they would lose their visa. Almost two-thirds of these women had been threatened with deportation by their abuser (LAWRS 2019). 



Women on spousal visas are uniquely vulnerable to threats of deportation, because their right to remain in the UK depends entirely on the continuation of their relationship. If the relationship breaks down, the spousal visa can be curtailed, which means the migrant partner loses their right to remain in the UK. If a survivor leaves an abusive relationship, their partner can notify the Home Office, initiating the curtailment procedure in which the Home Office can revoke the survivor’s rights to live in the UK.

The curtailment procedure will only be suspended if the migrant has applied for leave to remain under the Domestic Violence Rule. As we discussed in our previous post, the DV Rule is the only path to safety and support that the state has given to migrant survivors of domestic abuse. It allows survivors who are on a spousal visa to apply for permission to remain in the UK as a victim of domestic violence, and allows them to access public funds. In the context of curtailment, the DV Rule also appears as the only way a survivor on a spousal visa can remove their immigration status from under their abuser’s control. 

However, access to help via the DV Rule is becoming more and more difficult: beyond the financial cost and legal complexity of the application, migrant women are simply not believed. The Home Office considers evidence documented by the police and social services far more reliable than evidence from DV services such as refuges. But police and social services are the least safe services for migrant women to access help from, and migrants are deeply afraid of interacting with these agencies, with good reason. 

The Home Office itself is suspicious of migrants as a matter of policy, and is increasingly refusing applications made under the DV Rule. The harrowing process of obtaining leave to remain as a victim of domestic violence is in stark contrast with an abuser’s straightforward ability to initiate a curtailment procedure. 



This imbalance in rights and in treatment has allowed abusers to act with impunity, and to use immigration enforcement as an instrument of abuse. During our most recent panel discussion, a representative from the Tamil Community Centre in West London shared her feeling of powerlessness at seeing men deport their partners using curtailment procedures. Meena Patel from Southall Black Sisters confirmed that this phenomenon is common with the women they work with as well. 




The Home Office is helping abusers to deport their victims. The real cases of abusers curtailing their partners substantiate the threats of deportation that abusers use to instil fear and maintain control. This collaboration could be called unintentional if it hadn’t been documented so extensively, and denounced so often. Instead, it is just another instance of the State’s disregard for migrant lives.

“The Right To Be Believed” (2019) by Cathy McIlwaine, Lucila Granada and Illary Valenzuela-Oblitas King’s College London and the Latin American Women’s Rights Service

“Migrant Women’s Rights to Safety Pilot Project” (2016) by Safety4Sisters

“Police data sharing for immigration purposes: a super-complaint” (2018) by Liberty and Southall Black Sisters

“Abuse victims increasingly denied right to stay in UK” (2018) on The Guardian

“Curtailment” (2019) from the Home Office Manual

In this post, we explore the ways in which the State allows abusers to act with impunity, while handing them the tools to inflict violence against migrant women.



How Does Government Policy Help Domestic Abusers?

In our recent panel discussion on insecure immigration, we were joined by Meena Patel from Southall Black Sisters, Sandhya Sharma from Safety4Sisters, and Elizabeth Jiménez-Yáñez of Step Up Migrant Women. Our incredible panellists revealed how damaging and dangerous the government’s hostile environment is for migrant survivors of domestic abuse, who may risk deportation by the Home Office if they report their abuser. 



Depending on their immigration status, migrant survivors often have No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) - this means they are not able to access public funds such as basic welfare or housing benefits. If a woman is fleeing from an abuser and tries to apply for refuge accommodation, they often need access to housing benefits. Safety4Sisters told us that since the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown, nearly three-quarters of women they worked with had either been refused access to refuge accommodation, or Social Services had not tried to get them refuge accommodation because they had NRPF.

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9796de_436aea7be4e8431780881bc119a35edb~mv2.jpeg/v1/fill/w_1080,h_540,al_c,q_90/9796de_436aea7be4e8431780881bc119a35edb~mv2.webp

Is the government failing migrant survivors of domestic abuse? 

It may seem like the government has some mechanisms in place to support migrant women. Under the Domestic Violence Rule, in some cases, migrant survivors can apply for the right to remain. Under the Domestic Violence Destitution Concession, migrant survivors can also access three months worth of financial support while making applications to remain in the UK. However, we must consider that all of these applications are reviewed by the Home Office: they get to choose whether they believe the evidence that a woman has experienced domestic abuse, or whether she should not have the right to stay in the UK. 

A woman’s fate as a victim of domestic abuse is left in the hands of the Home Office, a department run by a government who pledged to create a hostile environment for immigrants. The refusal rate for migrant survivors of abuse applying to stay in the UK more than doubled between 2012 to 2016 - in this period, nearly a quarter of people were refused overall. Sandhya of Safety4Sisters informed us that a police report is the most accepted piece of ‘evidence’ to prove a woman is telling the truth about domestic abuse. It is typically not enough for a VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) organisation to make a general statement of evidence. 

Yet all three panellists made it clear that it is common for migrant women to be treated with suspicion and to not be believed by the police or by Social Services - both have been known to tell women that they should just return to their home countries. In a 2019 LAWRS report, women said the most common types of poor treatment they experienced with the police was being denied support and not being believed. Nearly a third of women also said they were not allowed an interpreter, or felt they had been discriminated against because of their race. 

With a hostile Home Office, and a suspicious police force and social service who may report you for having insecure immigration status, where is one left to turn to?

As Sandhya of Safety4Sisters pointed out to us, VAWG organisations must ensure their processes and procedures are inclusive of migrant women. Meena of Southall Black Sisters told us that, “where you do have [VAWG] services, we’re seeing that procedures and policies within the organisations are often created without the ability to help migrant women with no recourse to public funds - we need to challenge our own organisations as to why such policies and practices exist, when we should be supporting all women.” Our panellists emphasised that these women cannot be left behind by organisations, or forgotten about by the public. 

The government’s intentions to perpetuate an environment of hostility towards migrants means the responsibility falls to us, as members of the public and VAWG organisations, to act now, and support those most vulnerable in our society.

Actionable points for helping migrant women


1. Join mailing lists for 2020 Domestic Abuse Bill. The 2020 Domestic Abuse Bill has now been passed through the Houses of Commons, but amendments to support migrant women could still be made in the House of Lords. Keep up-to-date with progress by signing up to mailing lists from these organisations, who also provide crucial information & updates about the bill.

2. Read Step Up Migrant Women resources for campaigning actions and detailed information about problems for migrant survivors.

3. Read WomensAid's list of campaigning actions - sign up to keep updated about the progress of the bill. 

4. Join Southall Black Sisters’ campaign to abolish no recourse to public funds, so that migrant women have access to fair treatment when experiencing abuse.

Raise awareness of calls for ring-fenced funding for BME and LGBTQ+ specialist VAWG organisation (access via WomensAid).

- Internal conversations: Take a close look at who clients accessing the service are, who is coming forward to use the service, and consider what the needs of these women will be, particularly when they have no recourse to public funds.

- Recognise intersectional needs of survivors: Migrant survivors find themselves at the intersection of various forms of systemic violence: the forms of harm they experience are informed not only by their gender, but also by their race and their immigration status. Resources listed below provide VAWG organisations with guidance about how to help migrant women: 

- Safety4Sisters Practitioners’ Guide for supporting women at risk of violence and abuse with no recourse to public funds. 

- Southall Black Sisters guide to helping abused women with no recourse to public funds.



- London Black Women’s Project advice on intersectionality.

If you are in an emergency situation, please call 999.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline: 

confidential and free, available 24/7 - 0808 2000 247

The Women’s Aid Domestic Violence online chat: 

confidential and free. 

“Migrant Women’s Rights to Safety Pilot Project 2016” by Safety4Sisters 

“The Right To Be Believed: Migrant women facing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in the ‘hostile immigration environment in London” by King’s College London, Latin American Women’s Rights Service, and Step Up Migrant Women, 2019.

“How to apply for leave to remain as a victim of domestic violence”, www.freemovement.org.uk

“Abuse victims increasingly denied right to stay in UK” The Guardian, 2018

This article highlights the key points raised in our workshop, including, crucially, how the domestic abuse Bill is not currently supporting migrant women. The workshop speakers revealed the issues faced by survivors as a result of the government's hostile environment policy. 

Why is the Domestic Abuse Bill Leaving Migrant Women Behind?

Our incredible panellists revealed how damaging and dangerous the government’s hostile environment is for migrant survivors of domestic abuse, who may risk deportation by the Home Office if they report their abuser. 