CDB_77

Quelques passages sélectionné par Aldo Brina :

“This is meant to be a practical handbook for those who work with refugee women. You can be working in an NGO, in a municipality or in a reception centre as a social worker, lawyer, psychologist, health care professional, or similar, giving psychosocial and/or legal assistance to refugee women. We hope that this handbook will give you a better understanding on the causes and consequences of gender-based violence faced by refugee women, and help you to develop new skills as well as motivation to assist these women.”

“The project data reveals that violence against women does not stop at the EU border. Quite the opposite: one fifth of the women identified in the project as victims of violence had been victimised within the EU. The risk of (re)victimisation in the destination country is heightened by the circumstances and processes related to seeking asylum. Unclear residence status, including being undocumented, makes female refugees vulnerable to, in particular sexual abuse and trafficking. Sexual harassment and stalking, in particular of single women in the reception centres, and in the streets, including some rape cases, were mentioned in the journals. Selling sex for goods or for money in the refugee camps and reception centres has also been identified by the counsellors. The counsellors have encountered cases of forced prostitution in the refugee accommodation centres, but women are very reluctant to reveal this due to lack of other options, fear of being punished or that reporting might affect their asylum claim.”

“However, the most important background factor for low reporting rates seems to be that refugee women do not consider reporting crime as their utmost concern. Other barriers to reporting crime are poor language skills, lack of trust and fear of authorities, emotional and economic dependency on the perpetrator, fear of revenge by the perpetrator or pressure from the family or the community. Also authorities’ non-sensitive attitudes and processes might deter victims from reporting crime, or lead to re-traumatisation of the victim during the criminal justice process. Many of these barriers can be overcome, but resolving the root cause, namely, that refugee women do not see the benefit or need to report crime, would be important.”

“Gender-based violence remains a private and sensitive issue, and many of the forms of gender-based violence are not considered as crimes by the refugee women themselves. Feelings of guilt and self-blame prevent victims from reporting. Victims can also be afraid of the reaction of the perpetrator or the community. An important hindrance to reporting is attitudes within a family or in a community e.g. blaming a wife for being a “bad wife” if she considers leaving a violent relationship or shaming a victim of sexual violence. Sometimes communities even pressure a victim to stay silent. Within a community there can also be misconceptions related to reporting crime, such as that if you report crime, authorities will take away your children.”

“One reason why refugee women do not feel comfortable in reporting to the police or to other officials is lack of trust towards authorities. Mistrust can be a consequence of very unpleasant experiences with authorities in the countries of origin, including corruption, violence by authorities or a total lack of respect for women’s rights. Detention-like experiences in the destination countries’ asylum system are also not ideal for creating a relationship of trust towards authorities.”

“There are two systems aimed at protecting and upholding the human rights for asylum seeking victims of violence; the asylum system, which is aimed at protecting those in danger of persecution or serious harm, and the victims’ rights regime, which seeks to ensure protection for victims of crime. Most asylum seeking women could, in theory, claim rights from either one, or both, of these systems, because they need protection from persecution in their home countries, and protection from violence in the EU. But these systems seem to operate in silos, and do not correspond to the realities of the refugee women.

Many refugee women are traumatised by the past or recurring violent crime, but these incidents are not of their utmost concern while they are in the refugee status determination process. Their foremost concern is their and their children’s future i.e. to receive an assurance that they can stay in a safe country. A dilemma is that in order to be able to build a future, and to recover from violence, the women would need asylum; but to receive asylum they need to concentrate on and emphasize the most intimate and shameful incidents of their life.

In order to receive asylum a person has to go through an interview in which she needs to tell her life story highlighting the most negative and traumatic experiences. Also the claimant needs to tell about her experiences in a manner that corresponds to the institutional expectations. To meet the institutional expectations asylum seekers need to be aware of what kinds of experiences are considered relevant in the context of an asylum claim. Furthermore, an applicant needs to be able to explain the individual basis for a claim and give detailed information on concrete incidents of persecution.

This can be very demanding. The women may not understand that gender-based violence is a relevant experience in this context and they are usually deeply traumatised, ashamed and afraid to talk about their experiences.”

“Two important practises in counselling, which can help in overcoming the dilemma are; 1) informing women on their procedural rights, such as a right to an individual interview and confidentiality of the interview and 2) mentally supporting women to tell their story of violence highlighting the issues that are relevant for the claim.”

“Our evidence suggests that a multidisciplinary team, including a psychologist, a lawyer/ legal advisor and a social worker, is the most efficient in tackling the challenges female refugee victims of gender-based violence face. Teamwork improves the quality of counselling because in a team professionals can exchange opinions and support each other.”

“Even the most skilled and dedicated counsellors cannot succeed without solid support from the management. All counsellors should be provided with supervision, debriefing opportunities and peer-support to emotionally recover from the counselling sessions and to be able to efficiently assist clients.”

Les quatre étapes du conseil à une victime de violences basées sur le genre:

1. Build trust with her

2. Inform her on her rights

3. Help her to reclaim her story

4. Support her choice

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