The Right to be Believed
The study involved more than 60 women from 22 different countries with experiences of VAWG and insecure immigration status, as well as 10 BME-specialist organisations based in London.
Six key barriers to reporting crimes to the police experienced by migrant women.
1.
Fear of not being believed because of insecure immigration status.
2.
Fear of perpetrator.
3.
Fear of deportation.
4.
Fear of losing their children.
5.
Lack of information.
6.
Language and cultural challenges.
Negative experiences victims face when they report abuse to the police:
Worryingly, those who overcome these barriers, may still face additional barriers to access protection and poor responses from agencies. Our research showed that nearly half of those who reported the abuse were denied support from the police.
45%
were denied support by the police when reporting.
1/3+
of them were not believed by the police.
Download the report
Step Up Migrant Women
