Protecting migrant women against violence

WVoN spoke to Feride Kumbasar, director of Imece, which supports refugees, asylum seekers and newly-arrived migrant women fleeing violence.

Imece is a women-only centre based in Islington, North London, set up to help women fleeing from all kinds of violence.

It offers a holistic approach, providing support on a wide range of practical issues to women from all ethnic groups, particularly those from Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot communities.

“They have language issues, problems with immigration, their qualifications may not be recognised here.

“We make sure the resettlement process is easy for them.

"We offer specialist welfare rights advice, we support them to register with GPs or to get their children into school or nursery,” said Kumbasar.

Support is available for those who want to leave a violent relationship and establish a life for themselves.

“We undertake a risk assessment. Women fleeing from enforced marriage or honour-based violence is high risk, as the woman may be killed.

“The response might involve changing their names, changing their location.

“Everything needs to change. If they are a student they need to change their school.

“Honour killing is a huge issue in our community, which needs a complex form of support. It may need to involve the police, the education authority, the Home Office if it is [forced] marriage,” said Kumbasar.

A more ‘standard’ risk, involving violence but no death threats, might mean changing the locks on her flat or obtaining an injunction.

Some women are fleeing state violence, especially in Turkey.

Imece provides counselling and mental health support to help the women cope with their experiences.

Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish-Cypriot people have been coming to Britain for the last 60 years.

Turkish-Cypriots started arriving here after World War II to escape the civil war in Cyprus and in response to appeals by the British Government for labour.

A military coup in Turkey in 1980 led some to seek political asylum in the UK. Kurdish people have been migrating to the UK since the 1970s from Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria.

Imece, which is Turkish for 'partnership', was formed in 1982.

Although Imece is a pan-London organisation it mainly works in Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Enfield, where most Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot Londoners live.

Although London has the greatest concentration of Turkish and Kurdish people there are also significant clusters in Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool, but Turkish and Kurdish people can now be found in most parts of the UK, as they have fanned out across the country to set up businesses.

The Turkish and Kurdish community is now a lot different from what it was in the early days.

“At first people thought they would be here temporarily and set up organisations linked to political sects back home.  But the situation in Turkey has got worse and they have stayed here.

“Immigration legislation has changed a lot and doesn’t allow people to come to Britain as refugees any more, even from war zones. The doors are closed now.

“There are still some refugees but a lot of the newcomers are higher education students or men and women coming on spouse visas.

“That is when we have lots of forced marriage[s].  Families are forcing their young daughters to marry their first cousin in Turkey in order to bring them here.

“They don’t inform the young girl, some have boyfriends here, their families trick the girls telling them they are going on holiday.

“They come back as married women, and some of them end up knocking on our door,” said Kumbasar.

Imece researches the changing needs of its community so it can offer an improved response.  It also provides training to practitioners like social workers so they can better understand what the women are going through.

Although Imece was founded to support Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot women it now receives funding from Islington Social Services to run an outreach project aimed at all Black and Ethnic Minority women.

Kumbasar believes that culturally specific organisations like hers are necessary to help the authorities in Britain to fully understand what is going on in some cases.

“A woman went to the police saying her ex husband contacted her saying he was coming back, so she had to leave.

“She said they were separated because of violence, but more importantly, last time they saw each other her husband was with a man.

“The police interpreted this as homophobia saying the woman assumed the man was going to abuse his son because he was gay.

“We talked to the women and she told us the husband was with a guy who was 12 or 13 years-old and that he had always been interested in boys this age.

“She told us the last time they met her husband had looked at the boy strangely and touched him in an inappropriate way,” said Kumbasar.

Imece was then able to support the woman and her family to move away from London.

This year Imece launched a campaign against child abuse in Turkish and Kurdish communities.

A recent conference attracted over 80 practitioners.

“There are some child-rearing practices which might be seen by European communities as child abuse.

“For example smacking and beating is used to discipline children in Turkey.

“It is not only the parents who have a right to beat the child, but neighbours also.  If they see a child misbehaving in the street they have a right to beat that child.

“On the one hand we fight within our communities against these practices as well as explaining to the practitioners that this is a traditional practice and it will take time to change it.  They need to work with the families rather than labelling them as abusers.

“Child abuse is a problem in all communities as we have seen with the Savile case, but in my community it is a hidden issue.  It is not being discussed.  It is as if it is not happening.

“We know that most of the children who are being abused are being abused by their own family members.

“In Turkey it is the practice for newly-married couples to go and live with the extended family members.

“In this situation, in a crowded household you increase the risk of sexual abuse. You don’t have the spare rooms for children to have their own bedrooms.

“This is our fear about the new bedroom tax.  They are asking vulnerable people to rent out their rooms to strangers, but they don’t know the language, they don’t know the system.

“They will not be able to vet lodgers and, if something goes wrong, they will not be able to report it to the authorities, so we suspect that this will lead to an increase in child abuse,” said Kumbasar.