As Soroptimist International prepares to take part in a side event on migrant women and their children in prisons at the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, we issue our message to global leaders on this critical topic.

"Help us and ask us questions" 

This was the plea from a young Lithuanian girl, detained in
a US prison
facility, scribbled and handed to NGO workers intervening at the centre. 

At last year’s Crime
Commission, Soroptimist International delivered an oral intervention
highlighting the specific and often overlooked needs of women in the criminal
justice system.  We said:

“at every point
in the criminal justice system, women face seemingly insurmountable barriers
and challenges, based on nothing more than their gender.” 

Today, we are even more concerned at the
particular experience of women facing multiple forms of discrimination and risk
factors.  Arguably the most at risk are
foreign-born or migrant women. 

According to experts Sokoloff
and Pearce, “foreign-born women and men, in recent years, have become more
entwined with the criminal legal system due to changing immigration laws,
changes in enforcement, and more aggressive detention and deportation measures.
In tandem with this enhanced enforcement, harsher penalties for drug offenses and
"tough on crime" policies have also caught the foreign-born in the
broader net of arrests and sentencing”. 

Women caught up in the vicious cycle of trafficking are often
incarcerated on charges of prostitution – charged as criminals when in fact
they are victim/survivors.  In some
countries, foreign-born women make up the majority
of women in prison.  Whilst this research
was specifically focussed on the US, similar reports from around the world show similar
statistics.  For example, in the UK, 1 in 5 women in prison is foreign-born, and in
Bahrain 99% and in Barbados 80% of the female prison populations are
foreign-born.

Foreign women, rightly or
wrongly incarcerated, are in positions of extreme vulnerability, with less
access to family support, to legal support, and to information in their own
language – three critical needs for navigating a criminal justice system. 

Not only do they face these
extraordinary barriers, but they are also exposed to significant risk factors
for violence and exploitation from within the system.  The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against
Women, when describing the situation in the US, states that:

“the imprisonment of asylum seekers in United States detention centres and prisons is becoming
increasingly common. Even pregnant women are now being held in detention cells
contrary to international practice…Asylum seekers who come to the United States are usually fleeing human rights abuses in their home
countries, including torture, rape, religious persecution, disappearance,
arbitrary imprisonment and other forms of oppression. Women frequently endure
persecution particular to their gender, including politically motivated rape,
female genital mutilation, forced prostitution and forced marriages. In
consequence, the conditions in which women are detained in many cases may
further traumatize them and constitute additional harassment.”

Again, although particular to
the US, similar instances are being documented all over the
world.  A Human Rights Watch report on
Egyptian prisoners noted that: “women prisoners from other countries who lack
means of support are forced to ‘work’ for their Egyptian counterparts, to
obtain needed medicine and other items”, putting female foreign national
prisoners at particular risk of sexual exploitation.

On top of these shocking
stories, there are the additional risks for pregnant women or mothers.  A report from the NGO Women in Prison posits
“can the child remain with the mother? If not, will the child be deported? Into
whose care? In the UK, for example, despite there being thousands of
foreign female prisoners, there is no specific provision for female foreign
national women with children.”

With these documented stories
of abuse, discrimination, and exploitation, Soroptimist International makes the
following recommendations:

Provide
alternatives to incarceration for civil offenses such as violations of
immigration law, including awaiting a decision on an asylum case; low-level
drug and non-violent crimes, which affect women disproportionately; and mothers
who have committed nonviolent crimes and have dependent children (based on
recommendations from experts Sokoloff and Pearce)

Offer gender- and
culture-sensitive programs for migrant women who seek help for such problems as
substance mis-use, domestic violence, and mental health, who are arrested or
incarcerated, so that they have access to information and legal assistance in
their own language, and who are in court, ensuring that women’s rights are
protected and that appropriate language translation is used. (based on
recommendations from experts Sokoloff and Pearce)

1. Repeal any
   policies which automatically deport migrants after serving a sentence,
   particularly women who were escaping persecution and violence in their native
   country
2. Ensure that migrant
   women with children are incarcerated in family-friendly facilities, and that
   pregnant women are treated with dignified care
3. Repeal any policy
   which forces pregnant women to wear shackles during labour and birth
4. Ensure that
   migrant women’s cultures and traditions, including religious and dietary, are
   respected and protected.
5. Provide necessary
   support for those incarcerated migrant women who are the primary caregiver for
   young or elderly family members in their home countries, as these vulnerable
   individuals are also placed in danger.
   

 

Readmore about SI’s attendance at the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice here.