where human rights do not reach
Rebecca Dudley
Queen’s University Belfast
School of Law
rebecca.dudley.belfast@gmail.com
 The ‘long
and short:’
• PhD
• Briefing
 Structure
of this seminar
1. To explore the gendered impacts of one immigration
rule—NRPF—as it affects women experiencing DV;
2. To analyse emerging patterns of experience against
human rights frameworks, especially the right to life and
freedom from torture;
3.To make recommendations for policy and practice.
1. Findings:
Roads to danger, vulnerability and violence
2. Fatalities:
Counting Dead Women with insecure immigration status
3. Conclusions and Recommendations
4. Questions/discussion.
European
Court
Council of
Europe,
EU
CEDAW, Gen
Rec 19, Due
diligence…other
binding treaties.
Immigration
law
Civil and
criminal law
Human
rights law
Welfare law
Equality law
IMMIGRATION LAW
Depends on country of origin:
EEA, outside EEA, A8, A2 European nationals, all
different, change frequently.
(eg registration)

Depends on reason for migration
 Legal but insecure: study, work, marriage
 Other insecure immigration status, sometimes in
legal process, sometimes not: eg. fleeing
conflict/persecution, been trafficked;
 Other undocumented or illegal status (eg.
Overstayers)


No recourse to public funds set out in
Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 s115
WELFARE LAW
Housing benefit does not extend to
many non-nationals
 National Assistance Act (s 21) in need
of care and attention (has become
‘destitute plus)
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act
2002 (s54 and sched 3) excludes nonEEA nationals, refused asylum seekers,
overstayers, and dependant from
community care (housing, welfare law,
children’s law).

Roads to vulnerability, exploitation and
violence
‘If you are not a migrant, you don’t understand this. You
have absolutely no support network.’
Immigration status shapes the abuse, increases its
severity and shuts down options.
‘Women are very wary. They ask if we can guarantee that
we can get this visa? And there is no way we can
guarantee it. So they don’t pursue it.’
‘Its such a long process and why suffer? (If we) go, we
make enemies of him even more. So …they stay where
they are.’
No estimate of how many women are ‘trapped.’
I do help some women who have gone back, secretly, to
build up their confidence. But you don’t stand a good fight
when the last time, you told her there was nothing you
could do.’
How is this women going to ask for help again? And
again? And again. Everytime, according to her, the
response will be the same.’
some women do leave.
I suspect there are people turned away from statutory
agencies because of their NRPF status, despite the fact
that there may be some statutory obligations under
human rights law….as you can imagine, it is hard for a
vulnerable person to start making these arguments. It can
take some time and threat of legal action from ourselves.’
Liz Griffith, Law Centre, Belfast
We have calls…how sound those decisions are, I don’t
know. ..I have heard some social workers say ‘we can’t
support,’ I think that is from lack of knowledge, not
knowing aspects of the human rights assessment and
social care legislation.’
Statutory worker knowledgeable in human rights and
immigration law
 Some
women find safety through legal duties and
concessions.
 Voluntary agencies make enormous efforts, including
with personal resources.
 However, they face risks: knowledge of law inconsistent,
might be sent to other parts of country, children taken
into care or returned to perpetrators. They may fail to
get help even if eligible.
‘She is left with nothing. She lost her children, the children
are being looked after by the partner. She is staying one
night with one friend, another night with another
friend..she is struggling. ‘
 Return
 Return
to abusive partners
back to country of origin unwillingly, maybe having
had children taken into care
 Become destitute/roofless
 Work in exploitative conditions
 Align themselves with (usually) a man who becomes new
abuser
 Cross blurred lines between sexual exploitation,
prostitution, the sex trade.
Some women ‘disappear.’
‘I have met women…a lot of abuse. Where women have
been so terrified about being returned to their country
that they have not gone to any authorities and they have
ended up making themselves nests…we have a lot of
tower blocks and they would get a lift to the top floor, …a
level where there is no foot traffic, and they would use
blankets and cardboard to make a nest for them and their
baby…because they were terrified of being caught
without papers.’
When someone puts you out, you have to find a way. The
best way is to stay with a man. But if this man does
something bad to you, you are afraid to go to the police,
but when they police come they will ask you for identity,
but you don’t have (any) identity. And immigration wants
to deport you and you are afraid. That situation brings a
woman to risk life.’
One young woman was experiencing horrendous abuse
from her husband and extreme family violence. …we
tried to get that support settled for her…it was just so
heartbreaking. Her young child was removed from her
care to his..Her basic human rights were not met by the
state, and she was left to fend for herself. She lost contact
with me. I am not sure where she is.’
There was a refused asylum seeker…the police brought
her to us. There was only the (overnight homeless
shelter). There is only one so he could find her. Social
work was not able to help. She said, ‘I have a friend, I’ll go
to her. ‘ We never heard from her again.’
‘If a victim/survivor asked for help the most likely advice
from a lawyer would be go back to your country, seek
asylum, or just wait until the husband’s immigration status
is resolved. Even if she calls the police, they might only
be able to offer respite for a couple of days. Depending
on where she lives or her fears at the time she reports
there may be further investigation, or if there are children,
further investigation. But usually everything stops when
we start talking about money. …
…You need money to be safe. Or access to resources to
be safe.’
Routes to safety and support depend on resources, when
informal networks are non-existent, and the state fails to
fill the gap, the options narrow to nothing.



Inequalities and discrimination multiply and result in violence and
exploitation in the family, community, by the state, and across
borders.
This include any combination of forced marriage, domestic abuse
that may amount to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment,
harassment, stalking, sexual assault, trafficking for sexual
exploitation and labour exploitation, homicides. Sometimes
inappropriate levels of detention, and suicide as well.
The state does not uphold these women’s rights, nor is it neutral.
Rather, the state role prolongs abuse and makes it worse.
‘Counting dead women’
who have insecure immigration Status
 Home
Office records data on homicide victims and the
relationship of the victim to the principal suspect and sex of
the victim.
 Immigration status is significant risk factor for intimate
ex/partner homicides (eg Raj and Silverman 2002, Regan,
Kelly et al 2007)
 How to link fatalities to NRPF from materials in public
domain?
• Do you know of fatalities where there is a link? (yes)
• How would you identify them, from public domain, if you were me? (One
answer: Counting Dead Women)
http://kareningalasmith.com/counting-dead-women/2014-2/
‘If I can do this from a bedroom in East London….’
State should more effectively monitor fatal male violence v
women:
 more data collected and published to expose patterns, and
scale of issues and impacts;
 independent observatory on male violence against women
to research and make connections re: gendered crimes of
coercive control, including
 centralised database of Domestic Homicide Reviews.
 In
summer 2014, scoped CDW lists from Jan 2012/Dec 2013:
247 women
 53
names where woman might have family background
outside UK. Faulty method to expose need and gaps.
 Web
search against local press reports:
8 with clues that they would have had NRPF.
Varka Rama (28) in UK one month, after married in India.
Da In Lee, South Korean student, Aston University.
Carmen Miron-Buchacra, Mexican PhD student
Bernadeta Jakubszyk, Polish national
Dimitrina Borisova, Bulgarian national
Alexandra Kovacs, Hungarian national
Mariana Popa (24), Romanian national
Anastasia Voykina (23) Russian national
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2528375/JailedCannabis-smoking-psychopath-bludgeoned-girlfrienddeath-hockey-stick-left-unwatched-mental-health-teamChristmas.html
Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004 s 9 (3) establishes statutory
basis. Home Office Guidance came into effect on 13 April 2011.
Can be commissioned when the death of person 16 or over has or appears
to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by intimate ex/partner
with view to lessons to be learned.
Not to reinvestigate or apportion blame
(paraphrased):
• Interagency working well or badly
• What should be changed and by when
• Including service responses, policies and procedures
with the purpose to prevent homicides.
There is no guidance on questions to ask about immigration status
and its impact. The nearest is a statement on individual needs:
Were procedures sensitive to the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and
religious identity of the victim, perpetrator and their families? Was
consideration for vulnerability and disability necessary?
Home Office Multi-Agency Statutory Guidance for DHRs, p. 6
SHEFFIELD
DEATH OF ADULT D




Stabbed during child contact Feb
2013
DHR asked NRPF question
Answer: Could not manage risk
because she did not have practical
access or options for safety.
Separated cultural issues from
practical barriers.
WOLVERHAMPTON
DEATH OF V1




Stabbed at home Dec 2011
DHR did not ask NRPF question
Answered in part: NRPF meant no
separate assessment of need.
Conflated some cultural issues with
failure to provide support.
Should be in centralised database.
Guidance should be amended to separate ‘individual
needs’ eg.diversity/equality/cultural issues
from practical barriers to safety and support because of
NRPF.
Separate the questions and ask both.
Some women eligible for support get it, some women
eligible for support fail to get it, and many, probably most
women with insecure immigration status, documented or
not, do not get safety and support.
 Exclusions
from safety and support for women
experiencing domestic violence
• in danger of breaching Articles 2,3,4,5,6,8,12, 13 and 14
(ECHR, HRA 1998)
• do not meet obligations imposed by CEDAW, ICESCR, UNCRC
and Council of Europe Standards.
 Fundamental
rights –the right to life, the right not to be
tortured--should trump immigration law.
 But
these fundamental rights – the right to life, and the
right not to be tortured, are demonstrably violated here.
 Govt
 But
response (concession) literally concedes the point.
law is still limited, even where it applies, is patchy.
The experience of DV rather than visa status should
determine access to safety and support.
But at the moment, immigration law trumps welfare and
housing law, and mean limited access to civil and criminal
law. Human rights and equality law not much of a look in.
This is true across the UK.
Woman/migrant/benefits:
Perfect storm
inequality, disadvantage
and vulnerability.
Which leads to query:
Is NRPF even cheaper?
 Reinstate
devolved or UK wide emergency fund urgently.
 Provide consistent guidance, training, resourcing for
statutory workers (social care, housing) to conduct Human
Rights Assessments to uphold the human rights of
vulnerable women and children. Same for welfare law
implementation (eg. Destitution plus).
 Revise guidance and conduct of Domestic Homicide
Reviews guidance to better realise Art 2 obligations to
prevent homicides where immigration status is risk factor.
Ratify the Council of Europe Treaty on Violence Against Women
and Domestic Violence, (Instanbul 2011) which contains stronger
protections and support for migrant women experiencing
Domestic Abuse. Currently signed but not ratified.
 Strategic litigation? The HRA 1998 has not been used in domestic
violence cases in a way that reflects strides made a the European
Court level to recognise the nature of DV as violations of Articles 2,
3, 8, and 13.
 Extend Destitute Domestic Violence from spousal visa only to
other visa statuses. New policy should provide both 1) access to
safety and support and 2) route to regularise status. Resource
support organisations to deliver.

False economy? Test how much NRPF costs the public purse when
homicides/fatalities and other serious crime factored in: including blue
light services, A and E, criminal justice responses, children in care,
custodial sentences etc. (safety/support may be cheaper AND uphold
fundamental rights).
 Crisis support: sources of funds: visa fees? Criminal asset recovery?
 Perpetrator accountability: Explore ways in which the state might track
lapses into overstayer status and make sponsor accountable for such
lapses without further risk to victim or family.
 Law: The potential of Gender Equality Duty and in NI s 75. So far
equality law appears to have failed to influence the crossroads
(intersection if you like) where gender, immigration status, ethnicity, and
national origin meet.

UK Statutories: No Recourse to Public Funds Network (Islington Council)
http://www.nrpfnetwork.org.uk/guidance/Pages/default.aspx
UK Voluntaries: Campaign to Abolish No Recourse to Public Funds
http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/campaigns/abolish-no-recourse-to-publicfunds/
Also SWA, Rights for Women, WAFE, 23 other organisations.
European
WAVE Women Against Violence in Europe
http://www.wave-network.org/
PICUM (Platform for Undocumented Migrants)
http://picum.org/en/
 To
explore the gendered impacts of one immigration
rule—NRPF—as it affects women experiencing DV;
 To analyse emerging patterns of experience against
human rights frameworks, esp the right to life and
freedom from torture;
 To consider policy and practice recommendations in the
Scottish context and UK context.
Based on what you have heard, and what you know,
what needs to happen:
To better implement existing law?
To improve the law?
To get a better research base for policy and practice alternatives?
Thanks very much.
Rebecca Dudley
rebecca.dudley.belfast@gmail.com