Joint statement on Earned Settlement reforms
Earned Settlement will punish migrant women for the abuse they experienced
Following the government’s announcements on its Earned Settlement model on 2nd November 2026, Hibiscus, Southall Black Sisters, EVAW and the Latin American Women’s Rights Service call on the government to withdraw the reforms entirely; at the very least, exemptions must be introduced and existing protections extended to all victim-survivors of violence against women and girls (VAWG) regardless of their immigration status. We warn that the plans will directly penalise and harm migrant victim-survivors of VAWG for the abuse and exploitation they have experienced. Alongside extending the period to qualify for settlement from five years to ten years or more (in some cases even to 30 years), the government has announced stringent eligibility requirements including higher English language requirements, ongoing National Insurance contributions and the absence of any criminal record and government debt. These requirements fail to recognise how domestic abuse, trafficking and exploitation directly shape women’s financial circumstances, immigration status, employment histories and contact with the criminal justice system. The changes will instead increase long-term abuse, exploitation, poverty, destitution and criminalisation, while further restricting access to safety and justice. Yesterday, the Home Secretary said that workers should not be punished for the sins of their employer. Nevertheless, she has presented a model that will force victim-survivors to pay for the actions of their abusers, in some cases, for decades.
Penalising victim-survivors for experiencing abuse
Perpetrators routinely use control over immigration status, money and movement to trap victim-survivors. Under the announced Earned Settlement changes:
- Women who have been isolated or experienced coercive control and financial abuse will struggle to meet the settlement requirements, such as 3 years of national insurance contributions, no debt at the time of application, and fluency of English
- Women who have been criminalised as a direct consequence of domestic abuse, trafficking or exploitation will be barred from settlement and face deportation. Many women are coerced into criminal activity by perpetrators or become involved in offending as a means of survival.
- Women who are ineligible for limited avenues for protection, have periods of irregular status, and who need to access benefits in order to flee abuse will be penalised by extending their settlement period.
Deeper poverty, greater risks
Longer routes to settlement will increase women’s risk of abuse or force them to stay in abusive relationships. The government’s proposal to delay settlement for those relying on welfare benefits will create further barriers for victim-survivors who require financial assistance to escape abuse. It will deepen poverty and destitution for them and their children, and increase their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.
A requirement to have no debt will create new barriers for women whose debt arises from financial abuse, financial control, medical care for abuse/violence-related injury or unpaid surcharges controlled by perpetrators.
A threat to specialist by and for organisations
Longer routes to settlement will increase demand on specialist services that are already underfunded and overstretched. At the same time, the changes to the Skilled Worker visa salary threshold pose an existential threat to these organisations, putting at risk their ability to recruit and train staff with lived experience or those with relevant skills from overseas.
Changes that go against government pledges
These proposals cut directly against the government’s own commitments. The Child Poverty Strategy pledges to lift half a million children out of poverty, yet children born to migrant parents are twice as likely to experience poverty and make up a third of the children in deep poverty. The Homelessness Strategy commits to end rough sleeping and making homelessness rare, but these changes fail to consider that a quarter of people owed a homelessness prevention or relief duty were born outside the UK or EU, and migrant destitution has risen by 136% since 2019. The VAWG Strategy pledged to halve VAWG within a decade, yet immigration changes omit that women with NRPF are three times more likely to experience VAWG.
What we are calling for
We urge the government to introduce measures to mitigate the harmful consequences of the Earned Settlement reforms on victim-survivors of VAWG:
"The Earned Settlement reforms announced this week will be devastating to victim-survivors of violence against women and girls. As organisations working on the frontline to support migrant women, we know extended periods without settlement increase women’s risk of experiencing and remaining trapped in abuse. These arbitrary and punitive reforms will leave the women we support vulnerable and enable abusers to keep weaponising their insecure immigration status.
Although the government has confirmed that existing exemptions for domestic abuse victim-survivors will remain, we know these will cover only a limited number of women, excluding some of the most vulnerable, including asylum-seeking and refugee women. The government must withdraw these reforms immediately, and if it refuses, it must exempt every victim-survivor of VAWG regardless of their immigration status.
We are particularly concerned about the increased criminality requirement, which would exclude many women from being able to settle in the UK. This reform ignored the extensive evidence showing how abusers exploit the criminal justice system to criminalise women.
We are convinced that these reforms are a contradiction to the government’s ambition to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade."
Notes:
Note 1:
We argue that the domestic abuse exemptions mentioned during the announcement fall short because they only apply to a limited cohort of migrant victim-survivors. The Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC) provides a temporary 3-month grant of leave to remain and access to public funds, for certain migrant victims and survivors of domestic violence. The MVDAC is only available to survivors whose immigration status depends on a partner/spouse who: is a British citizen; has settled status or Indefinite Leave to Remain; has a work or study visa; has refugee status; is a current or former member of the armed forces. On the other hand, Appendix victim of domestic abuse (Appendix VDA) is a permanent settlement status, only available for migrant victims and survivors of domestic abuse whose spouse, civil or durable partner is a British citizen, a refugee, has settled status, or is a current or former member of the armed forces. Appendix VDA replaces any previous immigration status. Examples of victims and survivors who are ineligible for the MVDAC or Appendix VDA include those who are undocumented or hold visitor visas; those with valid fiance, student, graduate or skilled worker visas; and victims experiencing domestic violence from non-partner family members (such as parents or children).
Note 2: Our recommendations
ILR Qualifying Conditions
- Remove access to public funds, as a factor to increase ILR qualifying periods, in cases of VAWG.
- Introduce exemptions for victim-survivors of VAWG, modern slavery and human trafficking, in relation to the no criminal record requirement.
- Introduce exemptions for debt accrued as a result of abuse.
- Reduce visa fees to only operational costs and eliminate the NHS surcharge, for victims of all forms of VAWG.
Prevent Deportations of Victim-Survivors
- Prevent automatic deportations of victim-survivors with criminal records by introducing exceptions for those whose offending is the result of VAWG, including modern slavery and human trafficking.
Specialist Frontline Services
- Introduce an exemption from salary thresholds for staff employed at by and for Black and minoritised migrant women specialist organisations.
- Meaningfully consult by and for services on implementation.
Safety Net for Victim-Survivors
- Keep existing protections for victim-survivors of VAWG, including modern slavery and trafficking. Extend the MVDAC and DVILR to all victim-survivors, regardless of visa type and immigration status.
- Introduce a statutory firewall for migrant women experiencing VAWG, modern slavery and trafficking, to increase their ability to report crimes and access support, and decrease the weaponisation of women’s immigration status by perpetrators.
- Expand access to legal advice for victim-survivors by restoring immigration to civil legal aid and removing means-testing for survivors of domestic abuse and modern slavery.
Autumn Budget 2026: It’s time to translate promises into policy
In the past year, the government has set out three ambitious strategies, which aim to reduce child poverty, homelessness and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). We welcome the commitments to lift half a million children out of poverty, halve VAWG within a decade and make homelessness rare. On the eve of this year’s Budget announcements, we have two key questions. Firstly, will the government undo any progress towards these goals by pushing ahead with its proposed immigration and asylum reforms? Secondly, will it support migrant women and specialist services with dedicated funding?
As highlighted in our recent blog series, ‘Promises vs. Policy’, migrant women and girls are missing from all three government strategies. There is no acknowledgement of their disproportionate vulnerability to poverty, homelessness or VAWG. Concrete measures to address their needs are almost completely absent. In particular, the strategies propose no reforms to a key structural barrier for migrant women: the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition.
Whilst the government’s strategies skim over migrant women and girls, this is not due to a lack of available evidence. The link between immigration status and vulnerability to child poverty, homelessness and VAWG is well-established:
- Children born to migrant parents are twice as likely to experience poverty, and make up one-third of all children in poverty.¹
- A quarter of people owed a homelessness prevention or relief duty were born outside the UK.²
- Three-quarters of NRPF households spend more than a third of their income on housing.³
- 85% of applications to remove NRPF conditions are made by women, mostly single mothers.⁴
- Women with NRPF are three times more likely to experience domestic violence.⁵
- 28% of victims and survivors who are turned away from refuges have to sofa-surf after fleeing abuse; 9% are forced to sleep rough.⁶
- Most migrant victims and survivors are ineligible for protections like the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession, blocking them from financial support to flee abuse.
As the gulf between policy and reality grows, by-and-for organisations like LAWRS are left to plug these gaps with diminishing resources. Increasingly, we find ourselves pushing public services to uphold their statutory obligations. These services remain critically underfunded, causing direct harm to migrant victims and survivors. For example, Women’s Aid’s found that the majority of women supported by the 2025 No Woman Turned Away project had NRPF. Most experienced “inadequate and unsafe responses” from statutory services. Additionally, 61.5% of families with NRPF were refused support by children’s social care.⁷
Year on year, the resources available to specialist VAWG services is shrinking, whilst external factors like living costs increase the demand for support. This leaves by-and-for organisations in a deeply precarious position — we are forced to shoulder a progressively heavier burden, as the safety net which should protect victims and survivors disappears. This issue is made worse by the current commissioning model: specialist by-and-for organisations supporting Black, minoritised and migrant women are six times less likely to receive government funding⁸. As a result, many organisations operate at a significant shortfall. This situation is unsustainable.
If the government believes in lifting children out of poverty, making homelessness rare and halving VAWG within a decade, it must use its Budget to set out a safety net for the most vulnerable victims and survivors. Prioritising access to safety and justice means changing course on proposed immigration and asylum policies. We are continuing to raise urgent concerns about the Immigration and Asylum Bill, the ‘Family Returns’ proposals and the ‘Earned Settlement’ model. Each of these policies will deepen barriers to support, locking victims and survivors into long-term financial hardship whilst increasing their exposure to repeated violence, exploitation and abuse.
Another year without sustainable investment in specialist by-and-for VAWG services means another year that victims and survivors struggle to access life-saving support. Strategies establish commitments, but budgets are where these promises are tested. - iIt is time for the government to deliver for the sector, and for all victims and survivors of VAWG.
We call on the government to:
- Address the needs of migrant women and girls with funded support measures, as part of cross-government strategies to reduce child poverty, homelessness and VAWG.
- Publish an impact assessment which evaluates the effect of immigration and asylum proposals on cross-government strategy implementation.
- Establish ring-fenced, long-term funding for specialist by-and-for services who are currently plugging the gaps in statutory support.
References:
- IPPR (March 2025). ‘Revealed: Nearly half of UK children with parents born abroad are in poverty’
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation, ‘Families with no recourse to public funds are trapped in hardship.’
- Ibid.
- The Unity Project, Access Denied: The cost of the 'no recourse to public funds' policy
- Ibid.
- Women’s Aid. (2025). Nowhere To Turn, 2025.
- Ibid.
- Domestic Abuse Commissioner. (2022). A Patchwork of Provision.
Joint statement on harmful ‘Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK: a guide for asylum seekers’.
On 19th of August, the government launched the guide "Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK: a guide for asylum seekers". This guide will do nothing to support, inform or empower women. All it will do is fuel suspicion, prejudice, division and harmful myths about the nature and causes of gendered violence.
As organisations supporting victim-survivors of multiple forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG), as well as organisations supporting people seeking asylum, we are aware of the importance of the government providing comprehensive information about rights, entitlements and services to ensure victim-survivors can access support and justice. As stated by several led by and for Black, minoritised and migrant organisations, it is a reality that many women with insecure immigration status (including women seeking asylum) lack adequate information about support services in the UK, which can impede them from seeking help when experiencing abuse and exploitation.
However, we are alarmed that the framing of this resource distorts the realities of abuse and utilises punitive, racialised language that contributes to a dangerous agenda that weaponises VAWG whilst fuelling hostility against some communities, to the detriment of victim-survivors. The decision to single out people seeking asylum to be instructed on these subjects reinforces the harmful narrative that migrant communities pose a particular threat to women and girls that requires correction and surveillance. It furthermore marginalises victim-survivors, de-centring them from responses and omitting life-saving specialist resources.
As well-evidenced, VAWG is a pervasive, systemic issue that affects almost one in three women living in the UK, with the majority of abuse committed by men known to their victims. This form of gender-based violence is not unique to specific communities but a pervasive global issue rooted in gender inequality. Holding particular groups as primarily responsible for violence and abuse misrepresents the reality of VAWG and marginalises Black and minoritised migrant women, who are absent from the conversation and left unsupported.
A year ago, as part of our #NotInOurName campaign, we called out politicians and the government for hijacking the fight to end VAWG to justify misinformation that generated unfounded claims about Black and minoritised communities being more likely to perpetrate violence against women and girls. It is concerning that the development and distribution of this guide by the government continues to dangerously weaponise VAWG, despite well-evidenced consequences of anti-migrant rhetoric, including targeted violence at accommodation for asylum seekers and hate crimes against racialised communities. Notably, many of those responsible for committing these attacks have themselves been identified as perpetrators of domestic abuse. This underscores the extent to which VAWG is cross-cutting across society, rather than being attributable to particular groups, and how these anti-migrant narratives decentre victim-survivors from the conversation and fail to address the root causes of VAWG.
We know that this guide will have a detrimental effect on some of the most vulnerable victim-survivors, including people seeking asylum who have experienced VAWG, trafficking and exploitation themselves, impeding them from accessing urgent support whilst reproducing a troubling message that overlooks the root causes of abuse and harm.
We call on the Home Office and the government to urgently review this guide and produce a new resource in consultation with specialist services that genuinely focuses on providing victim-survivors with the means to be free from violence and abuse and to receive the support they need. If the commitment to halving VAWG in the current decade is honest, we urgently need to see a change in rhetoric and practice.
Latin American Women's Rights Service | End Violence Against Women Coalition | Hibiscus | Women for Refugee Women | Southall Black Sisters | Imkaan | Asylum Matters
Come and join our Migrant Women’s Voices Group!
Do you want to make a difference in fellow migrant women's lives? Come join our Migrant Women's Voices Group and use your voice and experience for real change!
What’s it about? 🤔
The Migrant Women's Voices Group is a new participation programme being launched by LAWRS in 2026 as part of our commitment to ensuring migrant women are at the heart of our policy, campaigning and advocacy work. The group will create a safe and supportive space for migrant women with lived experience of the migration system to share their expertise, shape our policy work, and influence change.
The group will work closely with LAWRS' Step Up Migrant Women Campaign, particularly its work to promote safe reporting mechanisms for migrant women survivors of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and modern slavery, so that women can report abuse and access support without fear of immigration enforcement.
The group is based on the principle that migrant women are experts in their own lives and the issues that affect them. It aims to move beyond consultation and create meaningful opportunities for co-production, where women with lived experience help design, deliver and evaluate our campaigning and policy work.
Who’s it for? 🤷🏽♀️
Participants should be women who:
- Are aged 18 or over.
- Are migrant (this includes women with any experience of the UK immigration or asylum system).
- Can commit to attending 3-4 in-person meetings per year in London.
- Are available to take part in optional projects between meetings (*meetings and project work is paid).
- Have an interest in contributing to policy and campaigning work affecting migrant women, including the creation of safe reporting mechanisms for migrant victims of crime.
We highly encourage survivors of domestic abuse, violence against women and girls, trafficking and exploitation to apply (must no longer be in a high-risk situation).
What matters is your voice, your perspective, and your willingness to create change.
The group will include 10–15 members, ensuring a balance between diversity of perspectives and meaningful participation. The aim is to build a group that reflects the diversity of migrant women's experiences and backgrounds, including differences in: immigration status, age, country of origin, language, family circumstances, experiences of accessing services, among others.
We know there is no single migrant experience, and we want the group to reflect that diversity.
How will it work? 👩🏽💻
Activities are expected to include:
- In-person group meetings (3-4 per year)
- Online group catch-up meetings (3-4 per year)
- Optional advocacy activities (2-12 hours per year)
- Policy events/discussions
- Policy consultations (sessions/surveys)
- Reviewing campaign/policy documents
- Campaign activities
- Storytelling activities.
- Public speaking opportunities
These activities are entirely optional and will always be delivered with appropriate safeguarding and wellbeing support.
All activities will be compensated, transport cost will be reimbursed, and interpreters and crèche will be provided depending on participants' needs.
How long does the programme last?
We ask participants to commit to the programme for at least one programme cycle (the first cycle will run from September 2026 to March 2027), as building relationships, confidence and collective influence takes time.
At the same time, the programme is designed to support longer-term engagement, and participants are warmly encouraged to remain involved in future cycles and in the years ahead, if they wish to do so.
Benefits 🤩
- Develop new skills and confidence.
- Advocacy and campaigning training.
- Create new networks and community.
- Gain experience for future education and employment.
- Create positive change for migrant women in the UK.
All participation will be compensated:
- London Living Wage stipend (As of July 2026, the London Living Wage rate is calculated £14.80 per hour).
- Travel reimbursement
- Interpreters, if needed
- Crèche available (For in-person meetings)
This is YOUR chance to work towards a more equal world where all women have the right to a life free from violence and exploitation, regardless of their immigration status.
Apply Now! 🙋🏽♀️
Apply online using our Application Form: ➡️ ➡️ APPLY HERE ⬅️ ⬅️
Applications open until Sunday the 13th of September.
Contact and more information 🤳🏼
Melissa, the project coordinator, would be happy to talk to you if you have any questions or need support with your application. You can contact her at: melissa@lawrs.org.uk
If you need more information, you can check out our Information Sheet which provides all the details for the programme.
We would be grateful if you could also share this information with your network as we want to ensure many migrant women know about this opportunity.
Thank you for taking an interest, we can’t wait to hear from you!
#NotInOurName: Tackling the Weaponisation of Violence Against Women and Girls
All women and girls should be able to live a life free from violence. However, many groups are using the issue of violence against women and girls as a way to spread misinformation and hatred, benefiting their own political agendas.
That is why we have teamed up with EVAW, Hibiscus, Imkaan, Women for Refugee Women, Southall Black Sisters, and Asylum Matters, and we are launching a practical guide on the weaponisation of VAWG as part of our #NotInOurName campaign.
What the guide is for
The guide is designed as a practical resource for people who want to challenge harmful falsehoods and have productive conversations with the people in their lives about VAWG and immigration. It provides tools to identify and push back on false narratives that endanger our communities.
Why it matters
Speaking as specialist organisations that stand for women and migrant communities, this weaponisation of VAWG does not benefit victims and survivors. Instead, it creates violence and division. This anti-migrant agenda puts women at risk.
What we are calling for
We need to shift the narrative to one that is accurate, evidence-based and grounded in lived experience. This, however, will take collective action from us all.
Together, we can create change in our communities, standing strong against those who use violence against women and girls to further their anti-migrant and anti-women agendas and demanding accountability from decision makers on this critical issue.
Let’s start the conversation.
#16DaysOfActivism - Human Rights and Migration Policy: an increasing divide
By Maria Monserrat Escudero and Dolores Modern
Human Rights in context
This year, commemorating Human Rights day is critical.
The Human Rights Framework guided governments, policymakers, and societies in general for decades, enshrining the value of human life, dignity and compassion beyond borders. Alarmingly, this consensus is now being challenged globally. In the UK, we can see this clearly with the pledge by some MPs to scrap the Human Rights Act and leave the European Convention on Human Rights. But we don’t need to go this far to put Human Rights at risk. By demonising migration, this government is fuelling the narrative that questions whether we are all deserving of rights and entitlements.
Human Rights are interlinked, and most importantly, inherent to every human being. By alienating certain groups of people from their fundamental rights, we are stripping them from their humanity. In the context of the 16 days of activism, where the importance of eradicating violence against women and girls is in the spotlight, the interconnectedness of Human Rights comes into centre.
The dehumanising effect of the hostile immigration environment
The cruelty of the current hostile environment migrants, asylum seekers and refugees are living in cannot be overstated. Our communities have progressively seen their vulnerability increase for years. And when we thought things could not get much worse, a government many of us had put our hopes in, turned on us.
Migrants have become the scapegoats for state failings of all kinds. We are to blame for the housing crisis, for austerity impacting the working class, for salaries falling and working conditions worsening. There is no evidence that shows that migration has caused any of these issues, or that reducing migration would fix them. However, the idea that migrants, asylum seekers and refugees are impoverishing the UK by taking from British citizens is spun across media, parliamentary debates, and now at dinner tables.
The purpose of these narratives is not to fix the root causes of the issues facing the UK. They are used and exploited to create division, cover failings and gain political support in a context of crisis and concern. These narratives and the policies that derive from them are also an extension of the colonial project, which extracted from and exploited ‘othered’ populations. Now, we see it happening within the UK borders by allowing for the dehumanisation of human beings who have made this country their home, however temporarily.
The real life impact of dehumanising migrants
The downgrading of the Human Rights framework and the narratives that enable this affect everyone. A mother might be afraid to speak to her child in her own language in public. A child might face bullying at school. A worker might fear reporting their employer for abusing their rights. A student might choose not to continue pursuing their education in the UK for fear of violence. This creates a fragmented society, where fear seeps into communities and erodes the trust and solidarity that hold us together. It also opens the door to further curtailing of rights.
For those most at risk, including the women we work with who are survivors of gender-based violence, trafficking, and exploitation, this context makes it even harder to access support, justice, and redress. These women, who are often experiencing intersecting issues related to structural racism and class discrimination, are being systematically failed by this government from multiple fronts. They are the very people the government claims to want to protect.
Migrants Rights and Women’s Rights are Human Rights
There are no humans less deserving of a dignified life. Violence against women and girls will not be eradicated if we, as a society, marginalise women who, due to their immigration status, are subjected to institutional violence and discrimination. The idea of “earning” Human Rights through, for example, increasingly complex conditions for settlement, goes against the commitments this country has taken to abandon the colonial project and become a firm supporter of the advancement of all peoples.
In this context, communities and solidarity networks are taking the role of the state and protecting those most vulnerable. However, charities and communities alone cannot revert the consequences of these curtailments.
But we refuse to lose hope. When in crisis, humanity has thrived by strengthening community bonds, and pulling each other up. The UK was once a leading voice in the adoption of Human Rights globally, being the first nation to ratify the European Convention of Human Rights. We need a government that can take up the mantle, refusing to be blinded by short-term political gain, and steps up to the challenges facing our times.
Everyone deserves to live in dignity. A fair immigration system that offers equal and real protections is the only way to guarantee Human Rights.
Another Autumn Budget, Another year of uncertainty for VAWG services and victim-survivors
Thursday, 27 November 2025
Yesterday’s budget did not mention Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) once – a glaring omission at a time when demand for specialist support is at record levels and victim-survivors have a 60% chance of being turned away from refuge, primarily due to lack of space and the No Recourse to Public Funds condition. Despite a manifesto commitment to halve VAWG, the government’s Budget has provided no new funding for the specialist organisations supporting victim-survivors of VAWG and their children.
With rising demand, higher operational costs, Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) funding cuts, a cost-of-living crisis, and the impact of a previous National Insurance increase, services already under immense strain now face even greater financial pressure. For VAWG organisations delivering life-saving support, this picture means longer waiting lists, reduced support, and in some areas, the real risk of services shutting down entirely. We have already seen 3 Rape Crisis Centres close in the last 12 months, and they remain – as almost all other women’s services do – unsure about their future beyond the end of this financial year.
While we welcome the scrapping of the two-child limit, which also means an end to women needing to 'prove' they were raped in order to qualify for the exemption on the benefit cap, the government’s failure to include support for victim-survivors in the budget is devastating for the thousands of women and children who rely on specialist trauma-informed support every day. It also has significant implications for our economy, productivity, and broader quality of life, if those seeking safety, justice and recovery after experiencing violence cannot secure the support they need, and rebuild their lives.
The government’s continued imposition of short-term, fragmented funding for VAWG services is actively hindering its own commitment to halve VAWG within a decade and undermining frontline work. While the entirety of the VAWG sector is affected, the impact is particularly severe for smaller, specialist ‘by and for’ organisations supporting Black, minoritised and migrant women. These services are six times less likely to receive government funding and operate at a 39% shortfall in funding1, despite generating more than £42 million in public savings each year. Chronic underfunding, combined with a hostile and anti-migrant political environment and increasingly competitive funding systems, continues to place them at severe structural disadvantage.
“‘We've always been in survival mode since 2012, when the austerity measures kicked in and our local authorities stopped funding us [...] The current situation is literally getting us from one year to the next year to the next year’...”
Evidence shows 67% of Black, minoritised and migrant victim-survivors want ‘by and for services’. These services are not optional add-ons; they are essential, life-saving -and in many cases, the only safe and accessible spaces equipped to provide holistic support to some of the most vulnerable victim-survivors. Yet far too many specialist organisations remain locked out of fair and accessible funding.
As the representatives of leading women's sector organisations, we are yet to see the things we know are needed - long-term, secure funding for all women, including those with No Recourse to Public Funds and recognition and support for Rape Crisis Centres.
Ahead of the publication of the VAWG strategy, we urge the government to:
- Commit a minimum of £502 million of investment in specialist domestic abuse organisations, which should include £222m for refuge services and £280m for community-based services.
- Create national ring-fenced funding for specialist VAWG organisations, including ‘by and for’ services, in line with the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s recommendations, including £158.3 million in ring-fenced for Black and minoritised, deaf and disabled, and LGBT+ victim-survivors, and £63.5 million per annum in dedicated funding for victim-survivors with No Recourse to Public Funds.5
- Urgent continuation and substantial increase of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASASF) fund, with appropriate year on year uplifts, over a 4-year period in line with other commitments.
- Replace short-term, fragmented funding with stable, multi-year funding allows services to plan, retain skilled staff, and meet increasing demand.
- Reform competitive funding and commissioning models to ensure equitable access for all specialist organisations, recognising the distinct role played ‘by and for’ services and the structural inequalities they face.
Without sustainable investment, life-saving VAWG services will continue to operate on the brink, and the government’s commitment to ending VAWG will remain unmet. Victim-survivors deserve better, and specialist organisations cannot continue to shoulder this responsibility without the resources required to keep women and children safe. 
Sources:
[1] https://www.womensaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Unsuccessful-referrals-into-refuge.pdf
[2] https://southallblacksisters.org.uk/submissions-campaigns/investing-in-safety/
[3] https://www.imkaan.org.uk/home-affairs-committee-report-response-funding-vawg
LAWRS supports the statement on the weaponisation of VAWG
The statement has been co-ordinated by organisations including End Violence Against Women Coalition, Women for Refugee Women, Hibiscus, Southall Black Sisters and Asylum Matters, and is endorsed by Imkaan and the Step Up Migrant Women Coalition:
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In the last weeks, we have seen how vital conversations about violence against women and girls (VAWG) are being hijacked by an anti-migrant agenda that fuels division, harms survivors and ultimately impedes the real work of tackling the root causes of society-wide violence, to the detriment of women and girls. We write as organisations on the frontlines of combatting VAWG to urge the Government to address this dangerous narrative.
We condemn all acts of violence against women and girls and the immense harm which such acts cause to individuals and communities. The facts about violence against women and girls in the UK are stark:
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Almost one in three women will experience domestic abuse, and sexual offences are at the highest level recorded.
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Two women a week in the UK are murdered by a partner or ex-partner.
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More than 90% of perpetrators of rape and sexual assault are known to their victims.
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One in two rapes against women are carried out by a partner or ex-partner.
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One in three adult survivors of rape experience it in their own home.
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Women who can’t access public funds, such as welfare support or housing assistance - due to No Recourse to Public Funds conditions - are three times more likely to experience VAWG.
We have been alarmed in recent weeks by an increase in unfounded claims made by people in power, and repeated in the media, that hold particular groups as primarily responsible for sexual violence. This not only undermines genuine concerns about women’s safety but also reinforces the damaging myth that the greatest risk of gender-based violence comes from strangers.
Every act of VAWG is a form of injustice. It is an injustice that violence against women and girls is carried out in our workplaces, in our schools, in our streets and most commonly, in our homes. It is an uncomfortable reality that it is committed in every economic group, ethnicity, age and social group, and overwhelmingly by the men who are in women and girls’ lives. VAWG is also perpetrated by people who move to the UK, but the racist idea that this is solely an imported problem flies in the face of women and girls’ daily experiences in the UK.
These horrifying facts must be addressed with sustainable investment in prevention and support services, and by removing state-imposed barriers to support for survivors. Instead, the issue is being hijacked by people seeking to use women and girls’ pain and trauma - and the threat of it - for political gain.
Over recent weeks, people claiming to care about the “safety of women and children” have left families, women and children living in temporary asylum accommodation afraid to leave their front door. They follow in the footsteps of the rioters who used the appalling murder of three young girls as an excuse to bring violence to our streets; with targeted attacks against migrant, minoritised and Muslim communities. That two out of five of those arrested for that disorder themselves had police histories of domestic abuse illustrates not only the pervasiveness of gender-based violence but the disingenuous nature of many of those who claim to have the interests of women and children at heart. Meanwhile, members of Parliament freely share false statistics about the nationality of perpetrators. Government ministers have even endorsed some of this summer’s demonstrators as having ‘legitimate’ concerns, which risks normalising and enabling the spreading of racist narratives by the far-right.
Not only do these falsehoods fail to keep women safe, they serve as a racist distraction that actively impedes the urgent work of addressing gender-based violence. Myths and misconceptions about sexual violence act as a barrier to justice for survivors. Spreading an inaccurate picture of VAWG in the UK allows the people - overwhelmingly men, from all walks of life - who harm women and girls to hide behind racial stereotypes and scapegoating. Meanwhile, hostile immigration policies propped up by this misinformation put many of the most marginalised women and survivors in the UK - racialised, migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women - at even greater risk of harm, destitution, homelessness, exploitation and criminalisation.
The government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls. This is a challenging but achievable ambition, but it cannot be done while lies about its causes are endorsed by those in the highest positions of power - Parliament and the media - and allowed to spread unchecked.
We urge the Government to show leadership in responding to the weaponisation of VAWG, including changing its framing of migration, promoting an accurate picture of violence against women and girls, and holding those who spread misinformation to account. We cannot afford for this agenda to drive further attacks on migrant communities or harm efforts to develop a coherent, effective strategy to address the real causes of gender-based violence. All women and girls deserve for us to face and confront the reality of VAWG, so that we can pave the way in ending it.
Labour’s immigration policy and LAWRS
The Immigration White Paper
In May this year, the UK Government released its Immigration White Paper, outlining a series of proposed changes to immigration policy. These proposals have created widespread uncertainty and fear among migrant communities — feelings that persist today, as many details remain undecided.
The direction taken by the government is deeply concerning. Rather than dismantling the hostile environment created under previous Conservative governments, it seeks to entrench and expand it — to the detriment of society as a whole.
The proposed measures are, and will continue to be, particularly harmful to migrant women — especially those who are survivors of gender-based violence, trafficking, modern slavery, and exploitative or unsafe working conditions.
LAWRS, together with partner organisations Southall Black Sisters, Hibiscus and EVAW, joined by 100+ organisations, are fighting these cruel policies. We have released a response outlining how they will harm migrant women and concluded with a protest outside of the Home Office on the 15th of October. However, we know that this will be a long fight — one that will require sustained collective action, solidarity across movements, and a continued commitment to centring the voices and leadership of migrant women.
Why are we so concerned?
Mainstreaming the far-right in immigration policies
The White Paper marks a dangerous and racially discriminatory escalation which scapegoats immigrants, not austerity, for economic and social deprivation. The government is mainstreaming far-right rhetoric, using this to inform reactionary policy-making at a time when violence against immigrants, asylum-seekers and refugees is increasing.
This is evident not only in the White Paper, but in subsequent statements from the Prime Minister and other members of his cabinet, as well as in the government’s failure to condemn the actions of far-right groups who are targeting migrants and people seeking asylum.
Migrant victim/survivors of domestic abuse
The government has pledged to halve gender-based violence in 10 years. Yet in its White Paper, it fails to address the vulnerability of migrant women survivors of VAWG. Frontline services such as LAWRS support migrant women whose inability to access mainstream refuges, financial support, stable housing or quality legal advice prevents them from fleeing domestic abuse and rebuilding their lives. Existing protections, such as the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC) and Domestic Violence Indefinite Leave to Remain (DVILR) are extremely limited, and cover only a limited number of women with insecure immigration status.
Moreover, the risk of statutory services, including the police, sharing information with immigration enforcement is directly weaponised by perpetrators, deterring reporting and access to protection. Individuals who are now in government have previously emphasised the critical need for a firewall between immigration enforcement and the police. Despite this, commitments to remove these barriers have not been followed through, and protections remain unavailable for most migrant victim/survivors.
Labour market and immigration
This government continues to devalue what they frame as “low-skilled” roles overwhelmingly held by migrant women in the UK. This includes care work, cleaning and support services, where essential workers already lack fair conditions and robust protections. The decision to scrap care worker visas is particularly alarming and risks collapsing an already fragile sector.
We are alarmed that genuine workforce planning and sectoral investment are being replaced with a reliance on migrant women workers as temporary stopgaps for labour shortages. By restricting their access to long-term stability and settlement, these policies force workers to accept poor conditions and deepen dependency on partners or employers, increasing the risk of abuse and exploitation
We also wholly reject the government’s framing of immigration control as a means to address labour exploitation. This narrative misrepresents the root causes of abuse in the labour market and instead targets the victims/survivors, rather than the exploitative employers who profit from their precarity.
Criminalisation of victim/survivors
In the UK, most women in prison or under community supervision have experienced abuse or exploitation. For vulnerable migrant survivors, criminality often results from coercion or economic precarity. As expressed above, migrant women also face barriers to report abuse and exploitation, meaning they slip through the cracks before later coming into contact with the criminal justice system. Automatic deportation and accelerated removals will prevent survivors from pursuing meaningful justice and rebuilding their lives.
Urgent priorities for action
The Government faces an urgent choice: to continue bolstering far-right ideology or to take immediate action to protect migrant victims/survivors. We call on the Government to:
- Abandon the UK Government’s Immigration White Paper (May 2025), which harms victim/survivors of VAWG, trafficking and modern slavery.
- Implement safe reporting mechanisms.
- End the criminalisation of victim/survivors of VAWG, trafficking and modern slavery.
- Fully repeal the Illegal Migration Act (2023) and the Nationality and Borders Act (2022).
- Tackle systemic racism and structural inequalities.
- Centre and provide ring-fenced funding for by and for organisations.
- Extend the combined MVDAC-DVILR model to all victim/survivors regardless of immigration status.
Press release: Home Office Review on data-sharing on migrant victims is not fit for purpose, say women’s rights and civil liberties groups
Southall Black Sisters (SBS), Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS) and Liberty have condemned the Government’s refusal to institute a firewall that would protect victims and witnesses of crime.
Liberty and SBS filed the first ever police super-complaint in December 2018, over the systematic sharing of victim data with immigration enforcement. The super-complaint, accompanied by 50 pages of evidence, showed that this practice was preventing victims of crime, particularly migrant women, from speaking to the police and putting them at risk.
In response, police watchdogs, HMICFRS, the College of Policing (CoP) and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) called for immediate action to stop this practice. Their report made clear that data-sharing acted as a deterrent to victims reporting crime, and that data-sharing caused significant harm to the public interest because of victims’ inability to seek protection or justice.
Today, Wednesday 15 December, the government announced the outcome of a Home Office Review[1] on data sharing between the police and Immigration Enforcement concerning migrant victims and witnesses of crime. The review makes no reference to police watchdogs’ response to SBS’ and Liberty’s super-complaint.
Pragna Patel, director of Southall Black Sisters said: “As organisations that work with some of the most vulnerable and deprived migrant victims of domestic abuse, we reject this Review and its findings.
This Review is the outcome of three years of engagement with the Home Office that has proved itself to be untrustworthy. We have been compelled to engage in meaningless consultations and meetings on data sharing with the Home Office (which we did in good faith) only to be told that the immigration system – in its present cruel, discriminatory and inhuman form – must be maintained at any cost. It makes us question not only the Home Office’s dubious claims to support all victims of abuse but also the very purpose of police-super-complaints mechanism since the outcomes are casually disregarded by the very institutions that we seek to hold accountable.”
Gisela Valle, director of the Latin American Women’s Rights Service said: “We are deeply disappointed to see that once again immigration enforcement takes precedence over the security and support needs of survivors of domestic abuse. It is contradictory for the Police and the Home Office to reiterate that survivors of domestic abuse are treated as a victim first and foremost but only insofar as it doesn’t affect the enforcement of immigration laws. Considering the ample evidence of the manipulation of survivors’ insecure immigration status by perpetrators of domestic abuse, we consider prioritising immigration enforcement over the safety of victims the state amounts to complicity in the coercion and control of migrant victims of domestic abuse.”
Liberty lawyer Lara ten Caten said: “It has never been clearer than during the pandemic – when countless people have been shut off from health services due to the risk of having their health data shared with immigration enforcement – that this practice puts lives at risk.
“The super-complaint brought by Liberty and Southall Black Sisters sought a firewall between police and the home office for immigration enforcement purposes so that victims and witnesses of crime would feel safe in coming forward. This decision by the Home Office not to implement a firewall ignores or plays down the fact that routine police discrimination already makes it harder, even dangerous, for people from marginalised backgrounds to interact with the police. This practice actively puts them, and everyone in society, at risk of crime.
“No one is safe until everyone is safe. We urge the government to reconsider their decision and implement a firewall.”
Pragna Patel, director of SBS, and Gisela Valle, director of LAWRS, added: “The Home Office is trying to re-brand Immigration Enforcement as a ‘safeguarding’ service when data sharing is a key plank of the Government’s hostile environment policy - which we say must be scrapped. This is why we strongly disagree with the proposal to create an Immigration Enforcement Migrant Victims Protocol which will in fact consolidate the sharing of domestic abuse victims' data between the police and immigration enforcement as a standardised practice across all police forces nationally. Safeguarding is clearly incompatible with the Home Office’s immigration enforcement role which is its primary purpose.
The Government told us that it was committed to a full review of the ‘hostile or compliant’ environment following the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, but the outcome of the Home Office Review provides further evidence of its unwillingness to soften, let alone dispense with, the harmful and discriminatory impact that its immigration policies have on those who are most in need of protection. The impact of data sharing has been particularly damaging during the coronavirus pandemic when migrant women experiencing domestic abuse have faced the double threat of being trapped with their attackers but unable to go to the police.”
Contact Gisela Valle at gisela@lawrs.org.uk Pragna Patel at pragna@southallblacksisters.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
- The Home Office report is available atReview of data sharing: migrant victims and witnesses of crime - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The Review arose out of the first ever police super-complaint that was jointly submitted by Southall Black Sisters and Liberty in 2018 which highlighted how data sharing between the police and Immigration Enforcement deterred migrant women subject to domestic and sexual abuse and other vulnerable victims or witnesses of crime from reporting to the police. Findings from an HMICFRC investigation into the police super-complaint upheld the complaint and made clear that data-sharing was a deterrent; that there were inconsistencies and confusion across police forces about how to deal with victims and witnesses who have insecure immigration status and most significantly that harm was caused to the public interest by the victim’s inability to seek protection or justice. Despite this, the government refused to introduce statutory measures of protection including a fire wall between the police and Immigration Enforcement for migrant victims during the passage of the Domestic Abuse Bill (now an Act) in Parliament and instead committed to undertaking a Review of the matter.