To mark the 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence and to report back on Safety4Sisters 10-month “Migrant Women’s Rights to Safety” pilot project, Safety4Sisters are holding a conference in Manchester to report back on some of the extraordinary barriers that migrant women subject to immigration control face in accessing safety and protection from gender based violence.
Farhat Khan – Founder of Women Asylum Seekers Together Manchester
Pragna Patel – Director of Southall Black Sisters
Alyna Smith – Platform for the International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants.
Vicky Marsh & Sandhya Sharma – Safety4Sisters
Safety4Sisters Women’s Group member:
“People need to know how we cry here, how we talk here and how we can tell the story because all the time immigration thinks our story isn’t real, it’s fiction and we are liars- but we are real and we need to tell our story.”
“When you are in my situation you are invisible, you are nobody and have no rights – this conference is so important to give me a voice and the many other women who are in my situation.”
This conference shows that we are still fighting for our rights. Nobody even knows that you exist and that’s the most lonely place in the world – you think you have no rights and you become invisible. I hope that the conference will create awareness and let people know that we exist. We need people to understand that we are women and we all should fight together for all women. Our rights are as important as all other women’s’ rights. We have to fight in solidarity.”
“Over the past 10 months, Safety4Sisters have worked with 61 women who have faced immigration issues and who are survivors of gender-based violence. Our conference will highlight the enormous barriers that they face in such utterly austere times and the daily battles that they encounter to establish the most basic of human rights – to live free from violence.”
When: 29th November 2016 1-5pm
Venue: 103 Princess St, Manchester M1 6DD
To book: [email protected]
Safety4Sisters work towards securing greater protection, safety and support for women who have experienced gender violence and who have no recourse to public funds/state benefits.
