- Conference
- 2016 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 23 February 2016
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
The government’s Immigration Bill is a draconian piece of legislation designed to criminalise and stigmatise immigrants and undocumented people. It is part of a wider, ongoing government attempt to appear tough on immigration to an increasingly sceptical public.
While millions of people were moved after seeing the washed up body of three year old Aylan Kurdi, the forces of reaction still remain – as angry and hostile as ever. Violent elements are feeling emboldened. European countries are putting up their borders while the EU is establishing a border force to expedite deportations and force/bribe middle-eastern and north African countries to establish huge refugee camps in their own countries.
In the UK, government proposals as part of their crackdown on immigrant workers hold yet more perils for women seeking refuge, including the possibility of undocumented workers receiving a 12 month prison sentence – potentially separating women from their children and making them even more vulnerable to exploitative employers and worse.
Further, the withdrawal of financial support to ‘failed’ asylum seeker families will leave families and children homeless and with no means of support or ability to feed themselves or to earn money. This is despite the poor quality of Home Office decision making, highlighted by UNISON and others. In just six months between 2014/15 in over 50% of cases on which the Asylum Tribunal made a decision, the case was either allowed or remitted. That women and children will suffer if this Bill is passed is beyond doubt.
Meanwhile proposals to restrict access to NHS care for migrant workers are in the process of being implemented. This creates huge potential for discrimination against the UK’s Black communities, and particularly women who may already struggle to access care because of cultural and language barriers.
Meanwhile the right wing media in the UK continue to focus on images of apparently healthy, fit young men fighting to board trains and smuggle themselves across the border from France – feeding the myth that migrants are primarily economic and seeing to take advantage of the UK welfare system
The prospect of a better life in Europe has driven many to make the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean. Thousands have died en route. Their misery, which makes them easy prey for people smugglers, is part of a global phenomenon that produces almost $26bn a year.
Charging an average of around $3,000 a person to reach Europe, the criminal gangs and the industry as a whole are flourishing.
Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia have all been affected. The British government’s decision to bomb Syria will worsen the refugee crisis, increase the Islamophobia that many refugees face, and solve none of the problems that refugees encounter.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that women and girls compromise about half of any refugee, internally displaced or stateless population. In shelters and camps these women are at greater risk of harm, due to traditional gender roles and women’s position in society, including the risk of sexual and gender-based violence. Unaccompanied women and girls, women heads of households and pregnant, disabled or older women face particular threats.
Never ending uncertainty, lack of privacy, lack of educational resources, violence, abject hunger and poverty, and the threat of being trafficked into slavery are everyday realities faced by many.
Save the Children warn “Unaccompanied children are at the greatest risk from people traffickers, some are being forced into manual labour, domestic work, drug smuggling and prostitution.”
It is estimated that there are up to 27 million people living in conditions of slavery, in forced labour or sexual exploitation around the globe today. The United Nations office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that global demand for prostitution and forced labour generates 32 billion dollars annually.
Trafficking women and children specifically for sexual exploitation is a high-profit and low risk endeavour for traffickers and the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world. Despite the fact international law and the laws of 134 countries criminalise sex trafficking, human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry behind illegal drugs and arms trafficking. Nearly 100 000 people are trafficked across international borders every year of which more than 70% are women and half are children. Every 30 seconds, a child is trafficked, and the practice is often heightened in the wake of conflict or natural disaster.
The UK is a significant destination country for women, children and men to be trafficked. Women and girls make up 98% of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. A trafficker can earn between £26,000 and £52,000 per year from one victim. Furthermore, 11% of British business leaders polled through YouGov admitted that it was ‘likely’ modern slavery was playing a part in their supply chain. Britain has averaged one supply chain crisis per year in the last three years.
All sex trafficking violates basic human rights, including the rights to bodily integrity, equality, dignity, health, security, and freedom from violence and torture. Key international human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), consider sex trafficking a form of sex discrimination and a human rights violation.
Despite these many challenges and threats to their freedom, safety and security, Conference believes that, with the appropriate support, refugee women can improve their lives and the lives of their children, families and communities
Conference therefore calls upon the National Executive Council to:
1)Strengthen our work advocating for evidence based, human rights centred policies around migration, which take account of the specific needs of women migrants and refugees;
2)Continue to challenge racist immigration policies and to support a wide range of anti-racist organisations at local and national level;
3)Lobby the UK government to use their influence to ensure that where refugee camps are in place, the safety and dignity of women is assured;
4)Consider how to support the International World Day against trafficking in human persons on 30 July;
5)Work with all appropriate UNISON committees to forge better links with international campaigns and solidarity initiatives and help raise awareness of the key issues in those countries identified as a priority for UNISON;
6)Encourage regions and branches to affiliate to those organisations that are a priority for UNISON;
7)Continue to work with those organisations that cross borders in their quest to eliminate violence against women.
