Seeking Refuge? - Rights of Women

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Introduction
About Rights of Women
Rights of Women aims to achieve equality,
justice and respect for all women. Rights of
Women advises, educates and empowers women
by:
• Providing women with free, confidential legal
advice by specialist women solicitors and
barristers.
• Enabling women to understand and benefit
from their legal rights through accessible and
timely publications and training.
• Campaigning to ensure that women’s voices
are heard and law and policy meet all women’s
needs.
We provide free legal advice on two telephone
advice lines to women across England and Wales:
• For advice on family law, domestic violence and
relationship breakdown telephone 020 7251
6577 (lines open Tuesday to Thursday 2-4pm
and 7-9pm, Friday 12-2pm).
• For advice on sexual violence, criminal,
immigration and asylum law telephone 020
7251 8887 (lines open Monday 11am-1pm and
Tuesday 10am-12noon).
In addition to contacting our advice lines, you
might also want to visit our website to download
free legal information sheets on issues including
domestic and sexual violence as well as our book
From Report to Court: a handbook for adult
survivors of sexual violence. Visit
www.rightsofwomen.org.uk for more information
on the law, your legal rights and our work.
How this book works and who
it is for
We have written this book for asylum-seeking and
refugee women and the organisations that
support them in the UK. We wrote it because
women who contacted us for legal advice and
support did not understand how the asylum
process worked and what their rights were. We
hope that if you are an asylum- seeking woman
and you read this book, you will understand how
and why decisions on your case are made and feel
more confident when you discuss your case. If you
work with asylum-seeking women, we hope that
this book will give you the information you need
to support them and, where necessary, advocate
on their behalf.
The book is divided into ten chapters which
explain different parts of the process of gaining
protection in the UK:
• Chapter 2 explains the law that determines
who is entitled to protection in the UK. It
explains the key provisions of the Refugee
Convention and the European Convention on
Human Rights.
• Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 explain the ways that
different types of cases are decided, under
both the New Asylum Model and the Case
Resolution Directorate. (Case Resolution
Directorate cases are sometimes called Legacy
cases).
• Chapters 7 and 8 explain the different decisions
that you may receive on your case, including
appealing against negative decisions and the
different types of protection you may be given
in the UK.
• Chapter 9 explains what will happen if you are
finally refused and facing removal from the UK.
• Chapter 10 explains what a fresh claim is and
how it can be made.
• Chapter 11 explains the financial support that
asylum-seekers and failed asylum-seekers are
entitled to, as well as access to education and
health care.
• Chapter 12 gives information about other
organisations that may be useful to you and
gives their contact details.
Legal advice
This book has been written to provide you with
information on the laws and policies that
determine who is entitled to protection in the UK,
and how decisions are made. This book cannot
give you legal advice on your situation. If you are
an asylum-seeker, or if you are thinking of
claiming asylum, it is important that you get legal
advice as soon as you can from a legal
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