By Dolores Modern

It is now widely recognised that migrant women with insecure immigration status are often prevented by fear from reporting domestic abuse, gender-based violence and exploitation. For nearly a decade, the Step Up Migrant Women campaign has fought for the establishment of a firewall between the police (and other statutory services) and Immigration Enforcement. This reform is not new or radical — it has been tried and tested abroad, and it has been consistently recommended by frontline organisations, independent commissioners, parliamentarians and UN bodies.

In recent months, two significant developments have brought renewed attention to this issue.

In January 2026, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) published its new Information Sharing with Home Office Immigration Enforcement policy. The policy explicitly recognises the need to balance public protection duties with the imperative of building trust among victims and communities.

Under the new framework, the PSNI will restrict the sharing of migrant victims’ and witnesses’ personal data with Immigration Enforcement. Immigration status will only be checked where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a history of serious overseas offending, and where doing so is necessary and proportionate. Crucially, such decisions will be scrutinised at senior level, and referrals must be made in writing to ensure transparency and accountability.

This approach reflects what frontline organisations and key stakeholders — including the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and the Victims’ Commissioner — have long called for: a clear separation between victim protection and immigration control. We congratulate organisations in Northern Ireland who have worked tirelessly to secure this change.

By contrast, the UK Government’s recently published Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy is more ambiguous. Although migrant women are largely absent from the document, it does acknowledge that immigration status can prevent victims from coming forward. This recognition is important. It marks a shift in language and signals awareness of a longstanding barrier.

However, the proposed solution falls short. The Strategy states that police will be required to seek a domestic abuse victim’s consent before sharing their information with Immigration Enforcement.

Our experience supporting survivors of trafficking and exploitation raises serious concerns about this approach. Women referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) must also give their consent to having their data shared with the Home Office. Yet many arrive at our services having been referred into the NRM, yet unaware that they have consented, or without fully understanding the implications. Consent obtained in contexts of fear, trauma, language barriers and power imbalance cannot be assumed to be freely given or informed.

The relationship between migrant communities and the police is shaped by distrust, unequal power and the broader hostile environment. Expecting individual consent to overcome these structural barriers is unrealistic. Without systemic reform, this measure risks being symbolic rather than transformative.

This is not a ‘ground-breaking measure’ — as the VAWG strategy states — but rather a weak attempt at appeasing all those who have been clamoring for a change. 

If the Government is serious about enabling victims to report abuse without fear — and about improving enforcement outcomes — it must move beyond consent-based safeguards and establish a genuine firewall between the police and Immigration Enforcement. Labour, when in opposition, was a firm supporter of this. 

The PSNI has shown that change is possible. The question now is whether the Government is willing to follow through.