Asylum: Females

(asked on 10th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Nationality and Borders Bill on women and girls seeking asylum in the UK.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 22nd February 2022

The UK has a proud history of providing protection to the most vulnerable people in genuine need, including women, and this will not change. This government remains committed to delivering a gender-sensitive asylum system ensuring that all those who seek asylum are treated with dignity and respect.

The Nationality and Borders Bill will deliver the Government’s New Plan for Immigration – the most comprehensive reform in decades, to fix the broken asylum system. The reformed asylum system will continue to strive to provide a system which is sensitive to gender and trauma-related needs, for example continuing to provide the opportunity for all those claiming asylum to be interviewed by an individual of the same gender and a trauma informed approach to actively avoid the re-traumatisation whilst an individual is in the asylum system.

We are taking into account the recently received report ‘We want to be strong’, commissioned research, experiences of those seeking asylum and welcome engagement through our stakeholder networks. Engagement, including on the New Plan for Immigration, is already underway, as we build a system that is fair, but firm; that safeguards those who may be vulnerable; and protects against any unintended consequences.

We will continue to support conversations on improving the health of refugees and asylum seekers via the Refugee Council chaired Mental Health Forum. This forum is informed by representatives from across the NGO sector, Home Office, Department of Health and Social Care, Public Health England and NHS England and NHS Improvement bringing those with customer informed insight together to consider approaches to mental health support.

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