What We Know
When migrant women with an insecure immigration status experience abuse and/or exploitation, they risk being detained and removed/deported if they report their abuser to the police.
What is insecure immigration status?
It refers to migrants whose status is temporary or insecure due to waiting for a decision about their permission to stay, because their status is dependent on someone else or because they lack permission to enter or stay in the country. Examples of migrants with insecure status include people who are dependent on their partners’, spouse or other family members’ status, people whose permission to work ties them to an employer, limits their working hours or restricts them from working in other sectors (e.g. seasonal workers, students, overseas domestic workers, etc.), people who are lawfully in the UK but are subject to conditions that restrict their access to full social and economic rights in the UK (e.g. tourist visas, those with No Recourse to Public Funds, people with visas that limit their ‘right to work’ such as asylum seekers and some potential victims of modern slavery in the National Referral Mechanism). It also includes those with undocumented status, such as people who have irregularly entered or stayed in the country, whose leave to enter or remain has expired or has been denied (e.g. refused asylum claims).
2018
In 2018, Liberty and Southall Black Sisters (SBS) submitted a police super complaint concerning the fact that the police share the data of victims and witnesses of crimes (including rape, modern slavery and human trafficking) with the Home Office for immigration enforcement purposes. They argued that this data-sharing has a deterrent effect on people with insecure immigration status, who often choose not to seek the support of the police.
December 2020
In December 2020 the findings of the investigation led by three independent police watchdogs were published. They concluded that data-sharing arrangements significantly harm not only victims of crime but also the public interest, as crimes are not reported and therefore remain unpunished. The report also confirmed that in domestic abuse cases, data-sharing with Immigration Enforcement does not constitute safeguarding, and called for an overhaul of the laws and policies on police data-sharing with the Home Office.
Evidence shows that victims of crime are routinely reported to Immigration Enforcement:
- A Freedom of Information Requests in 2018 showed that 60% of the police forces reported a victim’s immigration status to the Home Office.
- A Freedom of Information Requests in 2022 indicated that in the two years since May 2020, 2,656 crime victims were referred to the Home Office after reporting a crime to the police.
- A Freedom of Information Request (not yet published) from 2023 evidenced that Immigration Enforcement’s National Command and Control Unit (NCCU) received 3,118 referrals of victims of crime from UK police forces between May 2020 – February 2023. This includes victims of domestic abuse, sexual exploitation and human trafficking, among others.
Reporting migrant victims of crime to Immigration Enforcement has been justified by the Home Office in the name of safeguarding. However, given that their overriding role is to enforce immigration rules, this creates a conflict of interest that makes a true safeguarding function impossible.
This data-sharing arrangement is part of the hostile environment that has been in place for over a decade, putting fundamental human rights of migrant victims at risk.
Migrant victims with insecure immigration status are currently unlikely to approach the police because they believe that they will prioritise their lack of legal status instead of being protected as victims of serious crimes. These fears are not unjustified, but based on years of hostile immigration policies that prevent migrant victims from accessing safety and justice.
This lack of confidence prevents crimes from being reported and contributes not only to a system that is failing victims, but also that allows perpetrators to evade justice. Perpetrators routinely use immigration status as a tactic of coercive control towards migrant women who fear being detained, removed/deported, and/or having their children removed from their care when seeking support from statutory services or reporting to the police. Our experience and research show that perpetrators are empowered by immigration legislation and the heightened collaboration that exists between Immigration Enforcement and the police.
The lack of safe reporting mechanisms creates a barrier for migrant women seeking support to flee violence and exploitation, putting their safety and lives at risk and allowing perpetrators to exert abuse with impunity.
Step Up Migrant Women
