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The Vulnerable Women’s Project Refugee and Asylum Seeking Women Affected by Rape or Sexual Violence Literature Review

Document number
1961
Date
2009
Title
The Vulnerable Women’s Project Refugee and Asylum Seeking Women Affected by Rape or Sexual Violence Literature Review
Author/publisher
Refugee Council
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Irregular Migration, Feminization of migration, Economic migration, Labour migration, Free movement, Undocumented migrants; Undocumented labour; Migrant rights; Migration management; Comprehensive approach to migration; Migration policy; Restrictive migration measures,
Summary
The report entitled ‘Refugee and asylum seeking women affected by rape or sexual violence' provides a summary of evidence that is available about the prevalence of sexual violence and sexual exploitation against refugee women. The report stresses that certain factors - such as age, poverty, social housing and health - particularly expose refugee women to risk of sexual violence and exploitation.
The report has identified serious shortcomings of the UK protection system: the lack of gender sensitivity in the asylum procedure and in evidence assessment of asylum claims has restricted women's access to protection. Furthermore, there is a shortage of female interviewers and interpreters, female asylum seekers are wrongly detained during the process, decision-makers are lacking the skills to assess gender issues and make incorrect assumptions about their credibility in the face of medical evidence and there is poor quality of information available about women in their country of origin.
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