My Lords, my sympathy to the noble Baroness, Lady Helic; that is a very disconcerting situation.
I have added my name to Amendments 148 and 151. I would have added it to Amendment 160 but it is one of those amendments where the slots for adding one’s name fill up very quickly. I am particularly sorry about that because it puts the point very succinctly, and I would have liked to have heard the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, before I spoke.
This is a matter of equality, of principle as well as a practicality. Last week we debated amendments relating to immigration status. I do not want to repeat too much of that debate but one cannot say too often that what we do must be rooted in equality and humanity. A victim may believe that she has no status. That very situation can be and is used for coercion and control. She—usually “she”, though not invariably—may in effect go underground or find herself in a very perilous situation while her abuser goes unpunished, and noble Lords will understand what all that entails, or of course she may remain with her abuser since she may have nowhere to go “back” to. As I recall, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, talked about this last week.
I was struck by a representation made by Southall Black Sisters that was quoted in the report by the committee on the draft Bill, which I will repeat:
“Abused migrant women are at risk of the most serious and prolonged forms of abuse, slavery and harm but cannot access justice or protection if they have unsettled immigration status; they are effectively excluded from the few protective measures contained in the Bill. The Bill does nothing to remove immigration and other barriers, including providing safe reporting measures to encourage abused migrant women to access necessary protection.”
I regard protection as including access to resources. These reasons apply to all the amendments in this group, which are among the priorities of the domestic abuse commissioner designate.
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Can the Minister tell the Committee the timetable for the support for migrant victims pilot? The matter is urgent; the Minister will not be surprised to hear
that. She will also be aware of the concern of some of the specialist organisations that they have not been involved in providing evidence. If you are caught up in this situation, I am sure that you feel no less abandoned because there is a pilot scheme that does not apply to you. It is a pilot, which is by definition limited. The Committee will be glad to hear whatever information about that that the Minister can share with it.
The Committee would also be interested in the Minister’s comments on the effect of the recent change in the EU settled status scheme, though I appreciate that it is very early days for that. The destitution domestic violence concession is limited in scope, as is the domestic violence rule, as we have heard. I recognise that the DDVC is outside the rules and does not require legislation to make changes to it, but then no rule changes need primary legislation.
It is hard, when one reads or hears of the experiences of victims caught up in the situations that these amendments address, not to feel—bluntly—that the state is complicit in their situation.