'My husband broke my cheekbone once. Another time he tried to strangle me'

Domestic violence against women and children in immigrant communities is a growing problem. Now there are calls for a change in Government policy to give victims of violence more rights and better access to the emergency facilities they need, writes JAMIE SMYTH,Social Affairs Correspondent

CLAIRE FLINCHES when she remembers the beatings, which until a few months ago were part of her daily life in this country. An African immigrant, she arrived in 2007 to start a new life with her husband, who was legally resident in Ireland. Very quickly she became trapped in an abusive relationship that threatened her life and those of her two children.

But leaving her husband was hard, as Claire is among hundreds of migrant women given few ways to escape abusive relationships by a state that often denies them the support it offers Irish women.

“He broke my cheekbone on one occasion. Another time he tried to strangle me and pushed me down the stairs in our flat. I remember my children crying,” she says in French, her voice barely audible at times as she recounts three horrific years of physical and mental torture at the hands of her partner. “He continued hitting me even when I was pregnant. He couldn’t explain why he did this. He used to tell me: ‘It’s just the way I am.’ He also hit my son.”

Claire was a prisoner in the house.

She was allowed out only with her husband, who controlled all the money in the household, even accompanying her to the shops.

With no friends to turn to for help and no English to cry out for help in, Claire felt she had nowhere to run. She managed to escape the beatings only when a social worker at a hospital sent her to a women’s refuge after a particularly violent attack.

Safe Ireland, which co-ordinates support services for abused women, says domestic violence is a growing problem in immigrant communities. At least one-fifth of the women who use refuges, outreach and other domestic-violence support services on any single day are migrants. Nigerians, Polish, British, Pakistani and Indian women are common visitors to refuges across Ireland.

“Many migrant women do not have family or a friend support network to turn to if they experience domestic violence. They may also face significantly more financial challenges,” says Caitríona Gleeson of Safe Ireland. “Isolation is another significant factor in the abuse of women. Migrant women may also be less knowledgeable about their rights and entitlements and therefore less able to access safety and other supports elsewhere.”

Despite a growing need for refuges and other follow-on housing for victims of domestic violence, many vulnerable immigrant women are finding their access restricted or cut altogether, say NGOs.

Claire is an example of this problem. Even though she was married to man who was legally resident here for many years, and should qualify for residency rights on these grounds, her husband never applied on her behalf. When she ran away from him she gained temporary access to a refuge. But because she is not a legal resident she was not given the safe housing available to other domestic-abuse victims. Instead she and her children were moved to an asylum centre, which she says is inappropriate for them.

“I see distress in my children’s eyes for the first time since the violence stopped, when I ran from my husband in May this year,” says Claire, who cites as problems in the centre: the large number of men, a lack of privacy and the lack of cooking facilities. She wants to return to a refuge and says she has even considered returning to live with her abusive husband.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland, which has taken up Claire’s case, says her experience highlights a much wider problem. “Many migrant women may not be eligible for any welfare assistance due to their immigration status or because they fail to meet habitual residency conditions. The result can be that limited or even no support is available for migrant women and children in a dangerous and vulnerable situation,” says Denise Charlton, the council’s chief executive. “We are extremely concerned that migrant women and children are suffering violence, or could suffer violence in the future, as a result of being unable to access emergency support.”

Since May 2004 all social-welfare applicants, regardless of nationality, are required to be habitually resident in the State to qualify for payments. This is based on the length and continuity of residence in the State and on a person’s connection to it. NGOs say some community welfare officers who evaluate applications are refusing payments to vulnerable and abused migrant women. This, in turn, is increasing the pressure on refuges, which depend on welfare payments for funding.

“Habitual residency conditions mean there are few or no medium- or long-term accommodation and funding options for women with no recourse to public funds,” says Caítriona Gleeson. “Budget cutbacks are putting additional pressure on domestic-violence services. In 2008 Safe Ireland recorded that on over 1,700 occasions women could not be accommodated in refuges because they were full.”

Joanne, a mother of one from an Asian country, came to Ireland on a spousal visa in 2007 to join her husband, who worked in a hotel in the west. They shared a tiny room at the hotel with their daughter; very quickly, she says, her husband became threatening towards them. In late 2007 they fled to Dublin, desperate and with nowhere to turn.

“I was completely lost,” Joanne says. “I couldn’t even work out how to use a Coke machine to get my daughter a drink. I had bad English then, but I was lucky a passer-by helped me. He told me about a women’s refuge and put me on the bus to it. But when I got there they said I could only stay for four days, because it was a refuge for Irish women.”

After the four days Joanne was sent on her way with the address of the HSE’s emergency homeless person’s unit. The authorities provided her with emergency shelter in a homeless hostel, which Joanne says was an unsuitable environment for her daughter. “It was not like the women’s refuge, where my daughter was much happier,” she says.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland has written to the Minister for Social Protection, Éamon Ó Cuív, to call for a change in policy. It wants the Government to copy British and Australian rules that give migrant women with dependant immigration status their own independent status when they suffer domestic abuse. It also wants the department to direct community welfare officers to grant welfare support to abused migrant women regardless of whether they satisfy the habitual residency conditions.

So far there has been no indication from the Government that a change of policy is imminent.

Domestic violence

One in five women who have been involved in intimate relationships with men has been abused by a current or former partner.

One hundred and sixty-six women have been murdered in Ireland since 1996.

Ninety-nine of these women were murdered in their homes.

Of the cases solved, 63 women were murdered by a partner or ex-partner.

A further 45 women were killed by someone they knew.

In 99 per cent of cases resolved, a male perpetrator was involved.