Gaps in protection leave survivors at risk and undermine efforts to reduce violence against women and girls

Frontline women organisations warn that the Government’s Violence Against Women’s and Girls Strategy fails to address the realities faced by Black and minoritised migrant victim-survivors

Violence against women and girls remains a pervasive issue in the UK, with the National Policing Statement for VAWG confirming that 1 in 12 women will be a victim each year. Yet, the Government’s Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls, published in December 2025, fails to reflect the realities of the women most affected by structural inequality.

Latin American Women’s Aid alongside Hibiscus, Safety4Sisters and Rights of Women, supported by over 50 women organisations from across the country, warn that the Government’s strategy fails to protect the women most affected by structural inequality, including those with insecure immigration status or No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF). Proper and meaningful consultation did not include frontline organisations.

Organisations are drawing attention to the limited consideration given to migrant and asylum‑seeking women, as well as the impact on by and for services supporting them. The organisations raise concerns about the growing weaponisation of VAWG in political discourse, with far‑right actors using violence against women to justify anti‑migrant narratives – a trend the strategy fails to confront, leaving minoritised women even more exposed.

Signatories also highlight that specialist by and for organisations – the services migrant women rely on most – remain chronically underfunded and disadvantaged by competitive commissioning. The strategy relies on reporting levels as a measure of progress, despite many survivors avoiding statutory services due to fear of discrimination or immigration consequences.

[Click here to read our full response to the strategy] 

Harmful proposals: data-sharing, surveillance and criminalisation

Another key concern raised by the organisations is the strategy’s approach to state power. The proposed “consent‑based” data‑sharing between the police and Immigration Enforcement is fundamentally unsafe, as women facing fear or coercion cannot give meaningful consent. Such a system risks further deterring survivors from reporting abuse. Only a full firewall can offer safe access to justice.

Their concerns extend to the strategy’s emphasis on criminalisation and surveillance. Expanding tools such as facial recognition, predictive policing and anti‑terror‑style measures risks deepening the over‑policing of Black and minoritised communities. These tools are known to disproportionately target these communities and increase the risk of misidentification, wrongful stops and even the criminalisation of survivors.

At the same time, the strategy fails to acknowledge the harms women face in prison and immigration detention, and the barriers they encounter in the family courts, where language obstacles, discrimination and immigration‑related credibility doubts routinely undermine access to safety.

The organisations have set out a comprehensive list of recommendations – including a full firewall between statutory services and Immigration Enforcement, the removal of NRPF restrictions, long‑term ring‑fenced funding for specialist services, safeguards for women in detention and meaningful consultation structures.

Recommendations 

• Establish transparent, accessible and meaningful spaces for consultation and accountability for by and for organisations to actively be informed about the delivery of the strategy.
• Designate a frontline by and for organisation working with migrant women as a permanent member of the Strategy Advisory Board overseeing the implementation of the strategy.
• Ensure by and for organisations are at the forefront of the consultation process for the new definition of by and for
• Reject the introduction of earned settlement models and changes to asylum protection which will harm Black and minoritised migrant, asylum seeking and refugee women.
• Remove proposals involving a surveillance-based “perpetrator management” such as facial recognition, predictive policing, and anti‑terrorism‑style approaches.
• Introduce clear ring-fenced funding for by and for organisations and grant based commissioning. Set up accountability mechanisms for Local Authorities and other commissioners. MOPAC’s by and for grant program can be used as guidance model.
• Introduce safeguards for women in prison and immigration detention, including specialist support, trauma‑informed assessments, and protection from deportation.
• Establish a full firewall between statutory services (including the police) and Immigration Enforcement, replacing the “consent-based” forms and drawing on tested approaches.
• Remove NRPF restrictions for victim-survivors by extending existing immigration protections for all women such as the DVILR.
• Ensure RSHE is culturally informed, linguistically accessible, and co‑designed with young women and specialist by and for
• Set out a clear monitoring and evaluation framework, including how data will be collected, assessed, and reported, and how it will meaningfully reflect intersecting inequalities and experiences.
• Establish independent oversight and monitoring bodies, with clear accountability mechanisms for statutory bodies failing to work towards tackling VAWG

How can you join and support us?

Write to your MP asking them to raise this issue in Parliament and meet with our organisations to discuss this urgent matter. A draft letter is available for you to use. (If you are unsure who your MP is, you can find out through this page)

• Click here to share our campaign on Instragram.

The following organisations have endorsed our joint response and recommendations:

1. Asian Women’s Resource Centre (AWRC)
2. London Black Women’s Project
3. Asha Projects
4. Middle Eastern Women and Society organisation-MEWSo
5. HUMRAAZ
6. Rochdale Women’s Welfare Association
7. Roshni
8. Ashiana Network
9. Kurdish and Middle Eastern Women’s Organisation
10. Bawso
11. Halo Project
12. P.H.O.E.B.E.
13. ANAH Project
14. End Violence Against Women (EVAW) Coalition
15. Refuge
16. Advance
17. Surviving Economic Abuse
18. Welsh Women’s Aid
19. IRISi
20. Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse
21. Woman’s Trust
22. SafeLives
23. Respect
24. The Drive Partnership
25. Honour Thy Woman Group
26. The Pankhurst Trust (inc Manchester Women’s Aid)
27. SATEDA
28. Bexley Women’s Aid
29. Welwyn Hatfield Women’s Refuge and Support Services
30. Staying Put
31. East Surrey Domestic Abuse Services
32. Liverpool Domestic Abuse Service
33. NIDAS -Nottinghamshire Independent Domestic Abuse Services
34. Women’s Aid Luton
35. Sheffield Women’s Aid
36. EVA Women’s Aid
37. Oasis Domestic Abuse Service
38. Independent Choices Greater Manchester
39. After Exploitation
40. Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX)
41. Kalayaan
42. UK BME Anti-Slavery Network, part of AFRUCA Safeguarding Children
43. Lived Experience Collective
44. AFRUCA Safeguarding Children
45. VOICE Lived Experience Panel of West Midlands Anti Slavery Network
46. Working Chance
47. Birth Companions
48. Street Talk
49. Beyond Detention
50. Detention Action
51. South East and East Asian Women’s Association (SEEAWA)
52. West London Welcome
53. Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI)
54. Migration Justice at Law Centre NI
55. The William Gomes Podcast
56. Bread and Roses Collaborative
57. Women for Refugee Women
58. Tender
59. Level Up