IN ENGLISH

Ain’t I a Woman

Campaign for undocumented migrant women’s right to protection

The “No one is illegal” network has taken the initiative to a campaign highlighting the situation of undocumented migrant women, who in many cases are being victims of violence. The campaign aim to give these women their right to protection against violence and assault. According with the No one is illegal network’s antiracist and feminist agenda we now demand that the right to protection from violence includes women without documents as well as all other women in our society.

Because of their lack of rights, undocumented migrant women are, easy targets for people whom are aware of their situation and use their position of power to threaten, rob, blackmail or expose these women to sexual harassment and/or assault. Many of the women lack the possibility to defend themselves and to get help, or report to the police, because of their situation and the fact that they are hiding, not just from the Swedish government, but also from violent people in their near surroundings. Perpetrators who threaten, rape, abuse and blackmail undocumented migrant women are often well aware that making a police report or arrest is a big risk for these women.

The fact that these women haven’t got a residence permit in Sweden does not deprive them from the rights that women have been fighting for for the past 100 years. In the struggle to reinforce and sustain all women’s rights, without separating anybody by skin color, nationality and/or citizenship, undocumented migrant women are ignored because of racial and patriarchal structures within our society.

During our work with these women we have learned a great deal and gained much experience about the twofold repression these women are a target to.

Therefore we, with this campaign, want to highlight the violent situation these undocumented migrant women are a target to, and make sure they get the protection they need and every possibility to use the lawsuit that all women are entitled to.

We therefore demand:

• The law about women’s safety prevails over the immigrant law. This will lead to a situation where women’s right to protection comes before threats about being deported.

• The immigrant law gets clarified to guarantee a juridical practice where women’s right to asylum is a enough reason to lead to a permanent residence permit at an asylum trial. This concerns for example flight from abuse by military, flight away from forced marriage or female circumcision.

• Undocumented migrant women who contribute in a criminal investigation are granted a temporary residence permit during the pre-investigation period or while the juridical process is ongoing.

If you want to get in contact with us please e-mail us at info(at)aintiawoman.se