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"Asylum
seeker rape victims meet Oona"
Women
seeking refuge in Britain after being raped and tortured in their
country gave harrowing accounts of their persecution to Oona King MP in
a desperate plea for support. A
delegation of 40 women from Congo, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda gave
personal testmonies of their suffering to King, who also chairs a
parliamentary comittee on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide
Prevention, set up to prevent future genocides. Last
week MPs passed amendements to the Asylum and Immigration Bill which
includes denying asylum seekers state support if they cannot convince
the Home Office that they claimed asylum immediately on entry. A
report, Destitution by Design, published in February found that women
asylum seekers were disproportionately at risk of destitution. The
delegates, many of them living on the streets with sick children,
appealed for help in gaining legal aid to prevent the government sending
them back home. One
woman named Ida Z fled Congo Brazzaville with her brother four years
ago. He was granted asylum but she was refused. "When we are
talking about rape, torture and persecution, why does the Hom eOffice
not want to believe us?" she said. “I
would not come here if it was safe. I'm just drawing the attention to
think about our lives. This is suffering. We thought that in the western
world human rights was about respect but it's not. I'm afraid that I'm
very shocked." |
