Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help reduce the criminalisation of asylum-seeking survivors of violence against women and girls.

Asylum-seeking victims of VAWG must be treated as victims, first and foremost. We recognise the challenges asylum-seeking victims of VAWG can face and the VAWG Strategy will include more detail on our approach to criminalisation of victims of VAWG. It is vital that we get this right, and we are committed to publishing the Strategy as soon as possible.

We are committed to delivering an asylum process that is gender sensitive, building on the Government’s wider strategy to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG).

In addition, the Government provides support to migrant victims of VAWG through the Migrant Victims Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC) and works with sector leads on this group to ensure they are part of the broader strategy on VAWG.