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PEERS voted today to protect victims of domestic abuse from having their details shared with the Home Office in order to shield them from immigration enforcement.
In a report-stage debate on the Domestic Abuse Bill, the Lords voted 321 to 262 in favour of an amendment that would offer more safeguards against deportation to victims of violent and coercive behaviour by limiting information passing from the police to the Home Office.
Ahead of the vote, Baroness Crawley (Labour) said that abusers “commonly use women’s fear of immigration enforcement and separation from their children to control them.” Migrant women with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) face financial abuse as well as extra barriers in seeking help, she argued.
As peers prepare to debate reform of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi leads a bid to end the criminalisation of women who end pregnancies at home. LYNNE WALSH reports
The government’s new immigration proposal risks creating a society where rights are earned, not guaranteed, warn feminist groups Project Resist and FiLiA in a joint statement
