Refugees & VAWG

VAWG stands for Violence Against Women and Girls, and refers to any form of violence disproportionately perpetrated by men against women and girls. Examples include sexual violence, domestic abuse and so-called ‘honour-based’ abuse. This blog post will explain how VAWG links with refugees.

Women who experience inequality due to other aspects of their identities and characteristics, such as their ethnicity, religion or sexuality, are more likely to endure violence and less likely to access justice and support. This of course applies to many refugees, who tend to have different identities and characteristics to others in their host countries, and often face discrimination as a result. In addition, many migrants, particularly refugees and asylum seekers, have No Recourse to Public Funds. This means they are not able to claim most benefits, tax credits or housing assistance that are paid by the state, and women in this position are three times more likely to experience violence.

There has recently been an increase in public discussion around VAWG, due to claims from anti-migrant groups and individuals that they are concerned about foreigners in the UK perpetrating violence against women and girls. This is a problem because it inaccurately suggests that unknown strangers are responsible for incidences of VAWG, when perpetrators are more often known to those they harm. For example, more than 90% of perpetrators of rape and sexual assault are known to their victims, and half of rapes against women are carried out by a partner or ex-partner. Therefore, claims that migrants are a threat to the safety of women and girls might be for political gain rather than to help to combat the genuine issue of VAWG that those espousing these beliefs claim to care about.

The disingenuous nature of claims from those furthering the anti-migrant agenda that their goal is to protect women and girls is highlighted by statistics from the anti-immigration protests and far-right riots last summer. These happened as a result of a mass stabbing in Southport - the killer who was born to a Christian family in Cardiff was falsely said to be a Muslim asylum seeker who came to the UK on a boat in 2023. Two out of every five of those arrested in these riots had previously been reported to the police for domestic abuse.

These inaccurate claims about perpetrators of VAWG being from certain groups are even perpetuating the issue in many cases. This is because they have increased anti-migrant sentiment which has left some inhabitants of known asylum accommodation afraid to go outside, particularly at the sites where there have been demonstrations. This limits the ability of asylum seekers to access any support they may need, including for violence they have experienced.

Unfortunately, some politicians are feeding these harmful beliefs. For example, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Robert Jenrick recently quoted a statistic about London: ‘40% last year of all of the sexual crimes were committed by foreign nationals, despite the fact that they only make up 25% of the population’. However, the 40% is charges and cautions rather than crimes committed, and the proportion of foreign nationals serving sentences for sexual offence convictions in England and Wales is actually slightly smaller than their population share. Furthermore, the statistic does not take age into consideration, despite the fact that foreign nationals are younger than British nationals on average, and younger men are more likely to be charged for sexual offences.

In summary, refugees are more likely to endure VAWG and less likely to access justice and support for it, and a lot of the discourse that suggests increased migration is linked with increased levels of VAWG is wrong on many levels.

This blog post has been written based on information on the End Violence Against Women website - https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/explainer/ and https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/100-womens-rights-groups-warn-against-racist-weaponisation-of-vawg/. The second of these pages on the End Violence Against Women website links to other pages which have also been used, in particular https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/28/domestic-violence-crime-abusers-southport-protest and https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/08/the-problem-with-robert-jenricks-migrant-sex-crime-claims.