Campaigns
Join us in our current campaigns for women refugees. The more people speak out, the stronger we are.
Justice for women refugees
Women for Refugee Women believes that women who have fled persecution deserve a fair hearing in the asylum process. We are concerned about the number of women fleeing gender-based persecution whose asylum claims are refused because the nature and seriousness of gender-based persecution is often poorly understood by decision-makers.
As well as supporting individual women who have been unfairly refused asylum, such as Lydia Besong, we are working hard to improve understanding of the fact that women are unfairly refused asylum and to encourage reform of the process so that women get a fair hearing when they seek refuge in the UK.
Children and Detention
We believe that children who come to this country seeking asylum should be protected. We believe children should never be detained for immigration purposes.
Until 2010, the UK government was locking up about 1000 children a year for immigration purposes. These children, innocent of any crime, were being held for indefinite periods – days, weeks, months – simply because they and their families had sought asylum in the UK. The impact of detention can be devastating. Ripped from their communities, forced to leave behind their friends and their schools, children who are detained are deeply confused about what is happening to them.
End the destitution of asylum seekers
Women for Refugee Women is part of the Still Human Still Here coalition, a group of more than 40 organisations that are campaigning to end the destitution of thousands of refused asylum seekers in the UK.
Lydia Besong
Lydia was persecuted in Cameroon as a result of her peaceful political activities on behalf of the English-speaking minority in the country, and was imprisoned and raped in prison. She fled here with her husband Bernard Batey and sought asylum. Since arriving in the UK she has written three plays, one of which, How I Became an Asylum Seeker, was performed in London in 2010 at an event produced by Women for Refugee Women and hosted by Juliet Stevenson. Another is currently in rehearsal with a performance scheduled for March.
I admire the work carried out by Women for Refugee Women. By telling the true stories of women and children in the asylum process they woke a lot of people up to the scandal of child detention.
Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse
I have been delighted to support Women for Refugee Women since its launch- I've been truly inspired by the great work this organisation does, enabling women who seek asylum to speak out - whether at the grassroots or to government ministers.
Oona King
Many refugees and asylum seekers have fled their home countries because of human rights abuses. The work of agencies like Women for Refugee Women is vital for helping people rebuild their lives and have a voice.
Trevor Phillips OBE, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission
Put the word refugee in front of woman and immediately prejudice and projection arise. Meet a refugee woman, hear her struggles – and her joys – and you encounter a person, like you and me, who has been more than unlucky....
....Women for Refugee Women joins the dots, restores our humanity to ourselves and enables women to fight for theirs. Please support them.
Susie Orbach, psychotherapist and author of Bodies and Fat is a Feminist Issue
