Filipino women who escape abusive employers or traffickers in the UK can find themselves classified as undocumented "illegals"—a legal status that contradicts the very laws meant to protect them from domestic abuse and honour-based violence. This project examines how the UK's "tied" visa system, which binds migrant workers and spouses to specific households, can facilitate abuse by making victims dependent on their abuser for legal residency. The research partners with the NGO Gabriela Safehaven SEEAWA to gather firsthand evidence from service providers and migrant women about their experiences with the law. It will map the gap between immigration controls and domestic violence protections, tracing how this contradiction has deepened since the Home Office's hostile environment policies began in 2012. If successful, the project will produce a roadmap for policymakers to reform tied-visa rules, potentially closing a legal loophole that leaves abused migrant women without protection. This could affect how the healthcare sector and other industries recruit legal migrant staff, while ensuring that women escaping abuse are not penalised by the immigration system meant to regulate—not punish—them.
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Summary Context: This research will be conducted during the first 18 months of the new Labour government term. During the 2024 election immigration control was a key issue for the UK political agenda. This project will examine the issue of 'tied' visas that bind migrant workers or partner/spouses to designated households. We will explore the extent to which tied visas facilitate abuse as victims are dependent on their employers or spouse/partner for their legal immigration status. We will partner with the NGO the Gabriela Safehaven Southeast and East Asian Women's Association (SEEAWA). SEEAWA will function as a partner and subcontractor for this project. Challenge: To investigate the extent to which Filipino women, who have escaped from abusive traffickers, spouses and employers, end up as undocumented ‘illegals’ that are presented as a problem for UK society. This project aims to test the extent to which this situation contradicts other UK laws that work to stop comparable abuses, such as honour-based abuse and/or domestic abuse. We hypothesise that the tied-visa system compromises UK laws designed to protect the fundamental rights of women. This issue is challenging because it is legally and politically contentious. Aims and Objective: The overall research objective of this project is to examine the experience of SEEAWA service providers and UK-based service users. We aim to show how these experiences could inform future policy amendments that better protect fundamental women's rights. We will: Gather primary evidence of women’s lived experience of abuse and escape. Gather evidence of their experience of the law and how far the law has protected or undermined them. This approach will amplify a plurality of voices following the EDI aims and objectives of the AHRC. Identify all the services being provided by SEEAWA. Gather evidence on legal and political cases and developments that have addressed the legal standing of abused women migrants whose visa status is tied to abusive households. Co-develop with SEEAWA and other service providers and users tools to improve protection under the law for abused and trafficked women. Identify the roadblocks to meaningful legal change. Outline how the contradictions between the law on immigrants and the laws on domestic violence have been experienced since the start of the UK Home Office hostile environment policies under the leadership of Home Secretary Theresa May in 2012. Identify which politicians and political parties are acting on these issues and how we can engage with them. Potential Application and Benefits: The impact of the project will be to determine the extent to which these women fall between gaps in the law and are denied their fundamental human rights. Our work will benefit policymakers as we will create a roadmap to protect fundamental migrant women's rights. It will also benefit migrant women as a source of information and support. The project could benefit businesses, such as the healthcare sector, that are currently struggling to recruit legal migrant staff, with the skills these women currently have or could be trained in.
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