Domestic Abuse Bill (Eleventh sitting)

Liz Saville Roberts Excerpts

Committee stage & Committee Debate: 11th sitting: House of Commons
Wednesday 17th June 2020 Public Bill Committees

All migrant women—all women—who experience or who are at risk of abuse, regardless of whether or not they have a visa, deserve our protection and if they do not have a visa, they should be allowed to remain in this country, because if they are survivors of domestic abuse, what they need more than anything else is safety and security.

[Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)]

Does the hon. Lady agree that it is a matter of how we look at our fellow human beings and what we prioritise? Do we see them as immigrants, foreigners, people who do not warrant our protection, first and foremost, or do we see them as victims in need of protection, calling out to us for support and who deserve that support?

[Christine Jardine]

I thank the hon. Lady. That is exactly the nub of the new clauses. We should not be regarding these women as migrants; we should be regarding them as women who deserve our support. No one who has been through domestic abuse and survived it should have to hear the two words, detention or deportation. That is inhuman.