- Conference
- 2005 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 19 October 2004
- Decision
- Carried
Conference is concerned at the apparent increase in the ill treatment of women asylum seekers as reported by solicitors/barristers working in this field. With a hostile public attitude that has been developed and is fed by the rightwing press, there seems to be less interest in the fate of asylum seekers and there may be a view that a harsher approach will be at best acceptable and at worst unremarked upon.
Within this climate there is concern that, given the pressure on immigration officers to meet quotas for removals, women with young children are being increasingly targeted for detention and deportation because it is assumed that they will go quietly. So although women make up only a small minority of those in detention, stories of ill treatment and injustice involving women and children are becoming more frequent. Whilst the public may be inured to the plight of asylum seekers and may not care what happens to them, workers in the field believe that they would not accept these abuses if they knew more about what was happening, particularly as all this is being done in the pretence that our society needs protecting from these women.
Thus Conference believes that this issue must be addressed as a matter of urgency, and that if women asylum seekers and their children are being ill-treated then this needs to be brought to the attention of the public and steps taken to eradicate it.
Conference therefore instructs the National Women’s Committee to:
1)assess the scale and extent of the problem and collate relevant information;
2)urge the National Executive Council and Labour Link to liaise with the UNISON Parliamentary Group to look into this matter and if concerns are identified to pursue means of addressing them;
3)liaise with any relevant organisations to highlight the plight of women asylum seekers and work to counter the increasingly negative publicity associated with refugees and asylum seekers;
4)report back to Women’s Conference 2006.