19 February 2015
A parliamentary Committee on Human Rights has raised concerns that women and girls who are victims of violence are being detained in the UK through the fast-track process for asylum seekers. The Committee recommends an urgent review of the screening process.
Moreover, the Committee recommends that the guidance for interviews needs to be amended in order to make female interpreters available for cases of violence against women and girls, rather than the current practice of using them when “operationally possible.”
The report notes the culture of disbelief within the Home Office of accounts of rape and the double discrimination women face, firstly as an asylum seeker and secondly as a female.
Having regard to the high number of reversed decisions that take place in gender-based persecution claims, the report notes that “the Government should monitor the training, the number of reversals of decisions made, and the extent to which the guidance for immigration officials is properly followed to ensure a change of culture.”
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