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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/03/refugee-women-calais-help-rape-violence-uk-borders
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| When the Calais camp closes, what will happen to its vulnerable women? | When the Calais camp closes, what will happen to its vulnerable women? |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Rightly, there is fury from many sides about the children stranded in the Calais refugee camp. I don’t want to detract from the attention being focused on this shaming reality – that despite all the high talk in parliament there are still hundreds of lone kids waiting at our borders, falling into despair in these grim camps. But as the camp is threatened with demolition, there are other voices that need to be heard if the scope of the crisis is to be understood. | Rightly, there is fury from many sides about the children stranded in the Calais refugee camp. I don’t want to detract from the attention being focused on this shaming reality – that despite all the high talk in parliament there are still hundreds of lone kids waiting at our borders, falling into despair in these grim camps. But as the camp is threatened with demolition, there are other voices that need to be heard if the scope of the crisis is to be understood. |
| “I wish I did not have to speak about it. I wish you could just look inside me and see what I have gone through.” That was the first response of a young Eritrean woman I met recently, when asked about her journey to Calais. But Helen then tried to find the words to speak about what she had experienced. | “I wish I did not have to speak about it. I wish you could just look inside me and see what I have gone through.” That was the first response of a young Eritrean woman I met recently, when asked about her journey to Calais. But Helen then tried to find the words to speak about what she had experienced. |
| As she journeyed through the Sahara, the smugglers exacted a price. “Sometimes the men were forced to get off the lorry and lie on their backs in the desert. A bright light was shone into their eyes so they couldn’t see, and then we women were raped. All of us.” | As she journeyed through the Sahara, the smugglers exacted a price. “Sometimes the men were forced to get off the lorry and lie on their backs in the desert. A bright light was shone into their eyes so they couldn’t see, and then we women were raped. All of us.” |
| When she was imprisoned by traffickers in Libya, they also abused her. “The men would burst into the room at any time, and pick out a woman. They would do whatever they wanted.” | When she was imprisoned by traffickers in Libya, they also abused her. “The men would burst into the room at any time, and pick out a woman. They would do whatever they wanted.” |
| Many organisations, including UNHCR, have documented the particular vulnerabilities of women as they cross borders in this global crisis. The abuse of refugee and migrant women does not stop at the borders of Europe. Another young Eritrean woman I’ve met has been in Calais for 10 months. Her husband is in the UK, but she has given up trying to climb on to the lorries to join him. The women feel vulnerable if they go out at night with the men. They would never tell the police about any attacks. “We are not people to them.” | |
| What responsibility do we have, here in the UK, to these women at our borders? The view from our government seems to be that any step, however carefully managed, to enable people to find safe routes into the UK will weaken our borders irreparably. | What responsibility do we have, here in the UK, to these women at our borders? The view from our government seems to be that any step, however carefully managed, to enable people to find safe routes into the UK will weaken our borders irreparably. |
| At the end of the day, are we really so scared of these women, that we would block their attempts to seek safety here? | At the end of the day, are we really so scared of these women, that we would block their attempts to seek safety here? |
| Theresa May seems to be developing a two-tier system of asylum, in which those who are resettled straight from their home countries are seen as more deserving of refugee status than those who have made these dangerous journeys. But this is a false distinction; women who are already on the move are often just as vulnerable, just as entitled to protection, as those in refugee camps far away. | Theresa May seems to be developing a two-tier system of asylum, in which those who are resettled straight from their home countries are seen as more deserving of refugee status than those who have made these dangerous journeys. But this is a false distinction; women who are already on the move are often just as vulnerable, just as entitled to protection, as those in refugee camps far away. |
| Obviously the wider crises in which these women are caught up need bigger shifts in resources and interventions than the UK government can manage alone. But that is not to say that our leaders can’t play some constructive part in building a safer world. | Obviously the wider crises in which these women are caught up need bigger shifts in resources and interventions than the UK government can manage alone. But that is not to say that our leaders can’t play some constructive part in building a safer world. |
| Our prime minister and our home secretary, uniquely in our country’s history, are both women. If they could find it in their hearts to listen to what women on the other side of fortune are passing through right now, they might understand why current policy is so unworkable and inhumane. | Our prime minister and our home secretary, uniquely in our country’s history, are both women. If they could find it in their hearts to listen to what women on the other side of fortune are passing through right now, they might understand why current policy is so unworkable and inhumane. |
| It’s unworkable because it places an impossible burden on the countries where people enter Europe, and leads to chaos at the borders. It’s inhumane because by refusing to set up any safe routes for women like these, our policy leaves them and their children in a twilight world. Destitution and danger become commonplace, and violence against them goes unpunished. The legacy of that violence can be heard in the stories of every woman I’ve spoken to in Calais. | It’s unworkable because it places an impossible burden on the countries where people enter Europe, and leads to chaos at the borders. It’s inhumane because by refusing to set up any safe routes for women like these, our policy leaves them and their children in a twilight world. Destitution and danger become commonplace, and violence against them goes unpunished. The legacy of that violence can be heard in the stories of every woman I’ve spoken to in Calais. |
| Observers are often puzzled why these women are not claiming asylum in France rather than living in limbo, hoping to cross to the UK. For many women there, it is because the only family members they have – the fathers of their children, in some cases, or brothers, sisters, parents – are in the UK. One woman I met has lived in Calais for months with her four-year-old daughter, because her husband is in the UK and she cannot give up hope of reuniting the family. | Observers are often puzzled why these women are not claiming asylum in France rather than living in limbo, hoping to cross to the UK. For many women there, it is because the only family members they have – the fathers of their children, in some cases, or brothers, sisters, parents – are in the UK. One woman I met has lived in Calais for months with her four-year-old daughter, because her husband is in the UK and she cannot give up hope of reuniting the family. |
| At the end of the day, are we really so scared of these women, that we would block their attempts to seek safety here, and deny them any help in rebuilding their lives? Helen, the woman who made it through the Sahara and Libya, did in the end make it out of Calais and into the UK by climbing into a lorry at night. She has now claimed asylum, and if she is successful in settling here, she wants to become a nurse. I dearly hope that she is able to fulfil her dreams, and that we can find ways to help more women like her to rebuild their lives and reclaim their dignity. | At the end of the day, are we really so scared of these women, that we would block their attempts to seek safety here, and deny them any help in rebuilding their lives? Helen, the woman who made it through the Sahara and Libya, did in the end make it out of Calais and into the UK by climbing into a lorry at night. She has now claimed asylum, and if she is successful in settling here, she wants to become a nurse. I dearly hope that she is able to fulfil her dreams, and that we can find ways to help more women like her to rebuild their lives and reclaim their dignity. |
| • Names have been changed | • Names have been changed |
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