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THREAD: the government's Domestic Abuse Bill went through its last stage in the House of Commons today. Throughout the process, amendments have urgently been needed to create a Bill that is transformative in ensuring protections for migrant & Black & minoritised survivors...
...including women with No Recourse to Public Funds - who are locked in between to the violence of their perpetrator/s, and the violence of the state and its border controls. The #StepUpMigrantWomen campaign documents the impact of this: https://stepupmigrantwomen.org/2019/05/23/research-righttobebelieved/
In the #AlternativeBill we explained the need to sustainably resource our sector. 'By and for' specialist services work on the basis that VAWG is gendered and intersectional, in recognition that patriarchy and gender inequality are the root causes of VAWG: https://www.imkaan.org.uk/alternative-bill
Funding for London’s refuges for Black and minoritised women have been cut by 50% in the era of austerity - these cuts must be reversed and our sector restored so it can continue to deliver life-saving services: https://novaramedia.com/2017/10/02/bme-womens-refuges-in-london-have-lost-half-their-annual-council-funding-since-2009/
Our own research shows that in London, where there is the highest concentration of services, the combined income of fifteen BME ending VAWG organisations is less than the income of the main single provider in London. This is funding inequality: https://www.imkaan.org.uk/survival-to-sustainability
In the Commons today, an MP stated that "Our ideology should always be trumped by facts", and yet it is the ideology of neoliberalism that has gutted resource from our sector.
We welcome the tabled non-discrimination clause to the #DABill (brought by @EVAWuk and others) which seeks to put in place protections for migrant and Black and minoritised survivors of violence, which will only have teeth if our sector receives the sustainable funding we need.
Director of @SBSisters Pragna Patel explains: “The decision to leave migrant women out of this bill sends the message that their lives are not valued, they are disposable, they are second-class people, they are invisible” #ProtectionForAll https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/06/uk-government-accused-endangering-lives-migrant-women-domestic-abuse-bill
During two pandemics – violence against women and girls and COVID-19 – and as lockdown relaxes, demand for specialist BME services will continue. In this context in particular, a #DABill that doesn't work for ALL survivors, falls short #BlackServicesMatter https://www.imkaan.org.uk/covid19-position-paper
