Support for safe reporting mechanisms
Support for the introduction of safe reporting mechanisms for victims of crime has been growing, with backing from a wide range of stakeholders, organisations, and bodies in the UK and internationally.
In December 2020, following a Super Complaint submitted by Liberty and Southall Black Sisters, three independent police watchdogs recommended establishing safe reporting pathways for migrant victims. This call was further reinforced in 2021 and 2022, when the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, published two reports advocating for the introduction of a firewall to protect victims and ensure they can safely seek help without fear of immigration repercussions.
“At the point when victims have come to the police for safety from abuse, they are met with what many fear most: contact with immigration enforcement. Migrant victims have told me that this plays into the perpetrator’s tactics of control. This data shows there is not a single police force where migrant victims are treated as victims first and foremost. This must change now. Only with the introduction of a firewall can the victims and prisoners bill ensure justice and protection for all, not just some, victims.”
Nicole Jacobs
UK police report domestic abuse victims to immigration, shows data, The Guardian, 2023.
Claire Waxman OBE, the Independent London Victims’ Commissioner, has been a consistent advocate for the creation of a firewall to protect migrant victims. Her stance is supported by Dame Vera Baird, former Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales; Baroness Newlove, the current Victims’ Commissioner; and Matthew Taylor, former Director of Labour Market Enforcement. Margaret Beels, the current Director of Labour Market Enforcement, has also emphasized the importance of introducing safe reporting mechanisms.
“I must raise that as long as victims with insecure immigration status are not protected within this legislation, the Bill leaves many victims at risk. I hear repeatedly of perpetrators exploiting victims’ insecure immigration status to further their control and abuse. Victims’ inability to report due to a fear of arrest, deportation, or losing access to children leaves perpetrators free to abuse others and puts the public at risk. The principle of equal access to justice, support, and protection is crucial. To guarantee this, the Bill must include the right to safe and secure reporting and ensure that a victim is entitled to their rights under the Code regardless of their immigration status”.
Claire Waxman OBE
Letter to the Chairs of the Victims and Prisoners Bill Committee
“The recent report in response to Liberty and Southall Black Sisters’ super-complaint on policing and immigration status, outlines in detail the issues that arise for victims around data sharing between the police and immigration enforcement. The report recommends a firewall for those reporting domestic abuse, but arguably this should apply for any VAWG related offences”.
Dame Vera Baird
The Office of the Victims’ Commissioner Evidence Submission for the VAWG Strategy 2021
The Trade Union Congress (TUC), national federation of UK trade unions, has called for a firewall and an end to joint investigations as a safeguard for migrant workers.
Several members of Parliament have repeatedly supported the introduction of safe reporting mechanisms by tabling and supporting amendments to the Domestic Abuse Act, the Victims and Prisoners Act, and the Nationality and Borders Act.
“Other noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, have already raised that it is paramount that immigration data is not shared between the police and the Home Office. Safe reporting mechanisms must be established for survivors accessing vital public services, so that they can safely report abuse to the police, social services and others with confidence that they will be treated as victims, without the fear of immigration enforcement. The alternative is a licence for continued abuse, where migration status is weaponised against the victims of crime. We must do better than this”.
Lord Bishop of London
Domestic Abuse Bill, Lords Chamber, Second Reading, March 2021
“Is the Home Office more concerned about having access to information about vulnerable victims of domestic abuse in order to pursue issues of immigration status than it is about the inability of the police to pursue criminal perpetrators because victims are too afraid to report their crimes? I understand the Home Office’s dilemma but the moral imperative here seems overwhelming. For these extremely vulnerable women to face continued abuse and criminal acts against them to help the Home Office get information about other people is surely, quite simply, not right. (…) If a survivor of abuse with unsettled immigration status comes to the notice of the police, the police should refer them to a specialist who deals with these issues. To catapult these women into the immigration enforcement system without legal advice or support, just at the point when they are at their most vulnerable and have taken the first step to escape their abuse, is unnecessary, counterproductive and cruel”.
Baroness Meacher
Domestic Abuse Bill, Lords Chamber, Report Stage, March 2021
Recommendations for a firewall between the police and Immigration Enforcement have also been made by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee (2022-2023), the Justice Committee (2022-2023) and the Women and Equalities Committee (2022-2023), as well as the House of Lords Modern Slavery Act 2015 Committee (2024-2025).
A number of organisations working in the women’s, migrants’, anti-trafficking and Human Rights sectors have been tirelessly calling for the introduction of a firewall, including Liberty, Southall Black Sisters, FLEX and Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI). These join the long list that makes up the Step Up Migrant Women Campaign.
From an international perspective, the call has been joined by UN Special Rapporteurs; the International Labour Organisation (ILO); the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA); the Council of Europe; and organisations like the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM).
International Examples
