by Kat Lay



Human rights campaigners in London yesterday demanded action from their Members of Parliament on a rule which forces women to choose between staying with an abusive partner or homelessness and destitution.

Almost 300 campaigners took part in an Amnesty International lobby of more than 50 MPs to ask them to support action on the ‘no recourse to public funds’ rule.

Under the rule, women in the UK on certain types of visa, even if married to a British citizen, are not entitled to certain state benefits like housing benefit and income support. Women’s refuges rely on those benefits to fund places for women trying to escape domestic violence.

“Women who turn up at refuges or rape crisis centres have already gone through a deeply traumatic and dreadful experience,” said Heather Harvey, Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign manager.

“The last thing they need at that stage is to be turned away because the centre is full to capacity or has run out of money.”

Amnesty says the government position puts the UK in breach of international human rights standards to which it has signed up.

A statement issued by the charity said: “The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) says clearly that states must respect, protect and fulfil all women's human rights, regardless of immigration status or any other factor.”

The mass lobby saw activists from across the UK make appointments with their MPs on the same day to draw their attention to the issue, and ask for pledges of support.

They tweeted on their success using the hashtag #masslobby. Among MPs reported as ‘supportive’ were Secretary of State for Culture Ben Bradshaw, Respect MP George Galloway and Labour MP Diane Abbott.

Heather Harvey said the organisation had used the technique successfully in the past.

“We used this technique before in the campaign to control arms where we were lobbying for UK to proactively work for an arms trade treaty. One of the desired outcomes was for all three parties to produce statements saying they committed to support the arms trade treaty proposal,” she said. “This was successful on the day - all three parties did commit to that.”

Campaigners refused to work with the government on a plan put forward in June which would provide 20 days' conditional funding and backdated for women with no recourse, saying it did not go far enough.

In order to apply for the funding, the woman would already need to be in the refuge – whereas the fundamental problem is that for a woman to leave and a refuge to take her in, the funds must be immediately available.

They are hoping yesterday’s lobby will have raised enough awareness to make the next set of proposals closer to a permanent solution.