RAPE AND FEMALE ASYLUM SEEKERS

Early day motion 406, tabled 5 December 2006 by John McDonnell (Labour). Signed by 100 members.

That this House welcomes research by Black Women's Rape Action Project and Women Against Rape into the experiences of rape survivors at asylum appeal hearings; calls on the Home Office to ensure that women seeking asylum or refuge in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights after fleeing sexual violence perpetrated by agents of the state are enabled to speak about all the violence they have suffered, and to have access to adequate legal representation and appropriate medical and other expert advice; and calls on the Home Office to ensure that women seeking asylum are treated according to international precedents and to the 2000 Asylum Gender Guidelines, which must be assigned statutory status, and that they are granted refugee status or human rights protection in the same ways as men who are found to have suffered from torture or inhuman and degrading treatment.

Signatures by party: Labour 62, Liberal Democrat 30, Conservative 4, Social Democratic and Labour Party 2, Independent Labour 1, Plaid Cymru 1.