Report claims women too afraid to report assaults

Demonstrators protest against the hostile environment immigration policy outside the Home Office Photo: PA / Dominic Lipinski - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

The fallout from the government’s hostile environment immigration policy gets darker by the day.

Now we are told in a report produced by a coalition of women’s groups that vulnerable women are so afraid for being kicked out of the UK they are not reporting violent and sexual abuse to the police.

This is Great Britain in 2017. And frankly we should be ashamed.

The report, titled Women Living in a Hostile Environment, accuses the government of placing immigration enforcement above concerns over women’s safety.

Rachel Krys, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: ‘The public are rightly outraged by the devastating impact the hostile environment immigration policy has had on the lives of the Windrush Generation.

‘The same policy is also leaving many women at risk of violence and exploitation, scaring them away from seeking help, and making it harder for them to access life-saving services.

‘Abusive men often use control of immigration papers and what women can find out about their and their children’s status, to threaten and control them.’

The Windrush scandal has got Britain talking about immigration again. It is a conversation that needs to be had after the damage of the Brexit campaign.

Let’s hope that a more compassion country can emerge from this mess.