When they arrive here they struggle to find a home: they may be placed in shared accommodation with strangers, constantly moved from place to place, even left destitute without any means of support.  In the Home Sweet Home project women refugees are exploring what home means to them. They are photographing the streets where they walk, the hostel rooms and friends’ floors where they sleep, the belongings they take from place to place. These images shine a direct and moving light on to what it means to be a refugee in this country.

Read the recent article in the Observer on the Home Sweet Home photography project, with links to more of the photographs.   The Home Sweet Home photography project can be seen at the House of Commons from 12 September 2011, and at the Riverside Studios in London from 18 September 2011.  Press enquiries to admin@refugeewomen.co.uk or 020 7250 1239; enquiries regarding further exhibitions to wast@refugeewomen.co.uk

The Home Sweet Home photography project is produced by Women Asylum Seekers Together London and Women for Refugee Women, with the assistance of Adele Donovan, Hannah Maule-ffinch and Aliya Mirza

A few weeks ago, I found myself sitting in a café in Camden Town, lost for words. I was with Saron, a woman who arrived in the UK seeking asylum some years ago. When she spoke of her youth in her home country, you could catch a spark of the woman she had once been – ambitious, talented and fearless. When she talked of her life now, it was as if a cloud had blocked out the sun.

Afraid, hopeless and with no sense of self-worth, Saron spoke dully about the feeling she had that she was living a life – at the age of 33 – that had come to an end. What silenced me was the way she summed up how she had reached the end of the road. “It wasn’t what happened to me at home that broke my spirit. It was what happened to me here.”

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Source: New Statesman

As a result of the research, the UK Border Agency has for the first time agreed to analyse the different rates at which its decisions are overturned at appeal for men and women.

‘Unsustainable’ examines in detail the decisions issued to women seeking asylum in the UK. Working from an analysis of forty-five cases, and from interviews with asylum seeking women and UKBA officials, Asylum Aid made a number of worrying findings:

• women are routinely disbelieved by the UKBA when they present their asylum claims. 87% of the women in the sample were refused asylum, and the UKBA did not accept the credibility of the claim for any of these women
• half of all these refusal decisions were overturned when scrutinised by an independent immigration judge, and the women were granted status to remain in the UK. Unlike the UKBA, the judges accepted the credibility of the women in every one of the successful appeals
• the UKBA displayed a limited understanding of how victims of gender-related persecution might be entitled to protection under the Refugee Convention

Click here for link

My wish for 2011 is that we should not be deported. Earlier this year I was taken to Yarl’s Wood with my sons – aged 11 and 22 months at the time – and held for 18 days. My lawyer is now taking the government to court over their treatment. I wish that women and children who flee here for safety should be treated with respect. That is all I am asking for in 2011, a safe place for me and my boys.

As told to Natasha Walter, founder of Women for Refugee Women

The launch of a postcard campaign to highlight the experiences of women seeking asylum.

* Friday 26 November 2010, 10.30-12pm

* Pearce Institute, Govan Road, Govan, Glasgow G51 3U

Guest speakers include:

* Christina McKelvie MSP

* Anne McLaughlin MSP

* Karibu African Women’s Organisation

The 16 Days Campaign brings local, national, and global attention to the various forms of violence that women face. Govan and Craigton Integration Network is supporting the ‘Every Single Woman’ (http://www.asylumaid.org.uk/charter) campaign from the Women’s Asylum Charter which has been endorsed by over 200 organisations including the Refugee Council (http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/) and Scottish Refugee Council (http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/

RELATED LINKS

Govan and Craigton Integration Network (http://govanintegration.wordpress.com/events-4/)
‘Every Single Woman’ campaign (http://www.asylumaid.org.uk/charter)
Scottish Refugee Council (http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/
Refugee Council (http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/)

We are the LeicestHERday Trust based in Leicester. Our vision is to enable women to reach their full potential in all aspects of their lives. We empower women through sharing expertise, knowledge and experiences; by promoting opportunities in training, education, business and employment; by recognising and celebrating women’s achievements; and by consulting and working with partners, other organisations, agencies and community groups. As a women’s organisation based in the East Midlands, we feel our forthcoming ‘Tomorrow’s Women’ event may be of interest to yourselves and your members.

The LeicestHERday Trust is pleased to announce the launch of a unique event, specifically for women who wish to become decision makers of tomorrow. The event is sponsored by Avon “The company for women”. This exclusive event will include guest speaker Sheila Lock – Chief Executive of Leicester City Council, workshops, plus introductions to mentors to help individuals to become Board Members.

Venue: The Adult Education College, 2 Wellington St, Leicester, LE1 6HL
Date:  Thursday 26^th August, 2010
Time: 10am – 4pm

For further information and to book your place online please visit our website by following the link below:

http://www.leicestherday.org.uk/Events/216/tomorrows-women

Also, if you are governed by a Board of Trustee and currently have a vacancy which you wish to advertise, then please provide an A4 document with all the necessary details. We will be happy to promote the vacancy at our ‘Tomorrow’s Women’ event on the 26^th August.

Our sincerest thanks in advance for your assistance and we hope to see you at the event!

Kind regards,

Kate Merrett
Office & Projects Manager
LeicestHERday Trust

0116 255 1697

kate@leicestherday.org.uk

“If I go to the hospital they will tell the police – I would rather just die here than go back to Dadaab or Somalia,” she told IRIN/PlusNews in Eastleigh, a suburb of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

While most refugees coming to Kenya from neighbouring countries stay in official camps, many travel to urban centres across the country with no documentation. They spend much of their time hiding from the authorities, and struggle to make ends meet, with many women turning to sex work.

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The Observer has gathered a series of testimonies from detainees inside the Bedfordshire centre who claimed they had witnessed women being beaten and injured during a disturbance this month.

One image, taken inside Yarl’s Wood on a mobile phone, reveals extensive bruising to a woman’s shoulder and legs allegedly caused by staff during the incident on 8 February, days after dozens of asylum seekers instigated a hunger strike over the length of their detention. Another image shows injuries to a detainee’s finger after a guard had allegedly slammed a window on her hand.

On Tuesday, Lin Homer, chief executive of the UK Border Agency, and John Vine, the agency’s chief inspector, are expected to be questioned by the home affairs select committee over the claims, which are denied by staff.

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But how do hundreds of women, including vulnerable ones with complex cases, end up in a Kafkaesque procedure known as the detained fast track (DFT) which is designed for straightforward cases with a quick resolution?

That’s the question posed in a new report by Human Rights Watch published this week, Fast-Tracked Unfairness: Detention and Denial of Women Asylum Seekers in the UK.

Our research has shown that women with complex asylum claims – often based on family violence, rape or trafficking – are now being shunted through this fast-track system, even though their cases are inherently not capable of quick resolution.

Read more

Photo: Y.O/IRIN Radio

More and more women are going to the market everyday to look for work

Khadijo Mahamud, a mother of five, goes to Bakara market every day to look for work, despite the constant shelling. Her youngest child is 10 months old but Mahamud knows she has no choice but to leave him with her 10-year-old and venture out to find food for the family.

“I have to leave the children and try and find something for them to eat; I will do almost any job,” she told IRIN on 14 October. “Some days I get to wash clothes, but other days I work as a porter or clean stores.”

On a good day, Mahamud makes 50,000 Somali shillings (US$1.50). “There are days I don’t make even that much.”

Like Mahamud, a growing number of women in Mogadishu has been pushed into tasks that were traditionally considered men’s work, such as serving as porters and pushing handcarts in the market.

Mahamud said most women risked a lot coming to Bakara market but had no alternative. She said she had lost many friends in the market, killed by shells.

“You will be carrying something for a client and then the shelling starts and you have nowhere to run; many friends died trying to earn some money for their children,” Mahamud added.

Sharifo Adow, head of the Coalition of Grassroots Women’s Organizations (COGWO), said more and more women were carrying heavy loads in Bakara – the largest open-air market in the country – and one of the most dangerous places in the Mogadishu, with regular shelling by various fighting groups.

“In the past, we were used to seeing women selling tea or drinks in the market but now you see more and more women porters or pushing handcarts,” she said.

Adow said most of the women had lost their husbands and had no one else to help them, “so they do whatever is necessary to provide for their children. They are so desperate they will do anything to be able to get food to the children.

“It is not only women who lost their husbands who work,” she said. “There are many whose husbands are alive but are the family’s breadwinners.”

She said many of the men would not do some of the things the women did to feed their children.

“These [women] are the poorest of the poor who could not even afford to get out of the city and go to the IDP camps,” Adow said. “They live a hand-to-mouth existence and cannot even afford to get sick for one day.”

The Bakara market has suffered many casualties in fighting between government forces and two Islamist insurgent groups trying to topple the government.

Nuurto Ali, a mother of four, also does labourer’s work in the market. She lost her husband five years ago when a shell landed on him. “I have been working here ever since.”

Ali said the only help she gets is from her eldest son, Ali, 14, who works as shoeshiner in the streets of Mogadishu.

“Every morning, even when there is fighting going on, I am here at dawn, so I can get the early work,” Ali said.

Adow said aid agencies should think about setting up income-generating activities to help these women and their families.

“These are people that have fallen into a black hole; they are not where the aid agencies are and no one else is helping them,” Adow said.