Understanding The Risks of Gender Based Violence During Migration
While migration can be a crucial coping mechanism for many, it may put women, girls and members of the queer community at an even higher risk of GBV.
By Tanya Kathuria
TRIGGER WARNING: Please note that the content of this blog may trigger an emotional response in individuals who may have experienced or witnessed GBV or other forms of violence, and/or other traumatic events.
“I will say it is not an easy journey, but if you think you can handle it, take it. (…) Because I’ll give you the conditions, can you face them? Rape, sexual harassment, locked up in a house for two to three months and you have no freedom to go out. Different men come and have their way with you and go out. You don’t even know them; you don’t even … you don’t even know what is inside them. So if you can take all of that, you can take the journey.”
- Riza*, 24, Sierra Leonean migrant
Riza’s story is not hers alone — hundreds and thousands of migrants on the move may face gender-based violence.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is an umbrella term for any harmful act committed against a person’s will that is based on socially assigned (i.e. gender) disparities between males and females. It could be physical, sexual, emotional, verbal, financial, or psychological. It can happen in public or in private, and victims of all genders might be affected. It disproportionately affects women, girls, and people of different gender identities or diverse sexual orientations (LGBTQI+) due to underlying gender inequities.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a human rights issue that knows no social, economic or national boundaries. Moving within and outside our country can bring a myriad of negative and positive implications based on an individual’s gender and identity. While these aspects often intersect, they also accentuate the risk of being exposed to gender-based violence and inequalities en route, in host countries and even on return.
How do Gender and Migration Relate?
The numbers are increasingly staggering with 1 out of 3 women having faced gender-based violence at least once in their lifetime. Migration while a crucial coping mechanism, may put women and girls at even higher risk due to multiple forms of discrimination, exploitation, and stigmatisation.
While some migrants may leave their countries voluntarily, others are forced, fleeing violence, persecution, environmental degradation, natural disasters, or other circumstances that threaten their security, livelihood, or habitat.
Some might even use migration as a solution to escape gender-based violence however being in transit exposes them to violence. It is important to highlight that migration does not cause GBV. However, many migrants; especially those irregular, may endure situations that make them more vulnerable to violence during their journey. Throughout a person’s migration journey, a variety of factors influence their risks and vulnerabilities. Along with gender, a critical aspect is whether the migratory route is safe and consistent.
Exploring Primary Risk Factors
Travelling with minimal legal and/or financial means places the migrants’ trust in the discretion of people around them. In a discussion paper presented at THAMM (Towards a Holistic Approach to Labour Migration Governance and Labour Mobility in North Africa) Regional Conference for International Labour Organisation(ILO) in 2021, Samuel Hall highlighted how a non-existent social safety net in vulnerable circumstances such as irregular migration can negatively impact migrants. In these circumstances, gender is an aggravating factor, as is the lack of access to social safety nets — such as no access to proper health care. This puts migrant women at increased risk of contracting illnesses such as COVID-19 and places them at heightened risks of human trafficking and exploitation.
Along with deep-rooted patriarchal norms, lack of documentation, and irregular migration status may also challenge their will to seek justice for any mistreatment. According to our research study for UNICEF in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh more than half of the Rohingya population now living in Cox’s Bazar is female, many of whom experienced violence. The study highlights how the high incidence of GBV, with 42.5 % of women in this study reporting experiencing violence in the home, is directly related to the community’s conservative norms around gender and exacerbated both by stress on households linked to the economic situation and a cultural acceptance of certain forms of GBV.
In our recent study on Return and Reintegration in South Sudan under the Research and Evidence Facility (REF), we found out that women are frequently left behind when men in their families migrate. This may significantly constrain women’s mobility with repercussions on their safety and ability to access income or essential household items. In the words of a 42-years-old refugee woman interviewed in Uganda,
“It’s usually men who are daring and decide to go back [to South Sudan]”
Evidence from our research in North Africa shows girls identified sexual and gender-based violence, pregnancy, robbery and assault, detention, and lack of shelter as some of the key risks for which they needed protection. Having to exchange sex for access to basic needs is also highly reported in the region. Sexual exploitation is often perpetrated against girls during their migration journey seeking a means of obtaining housing, protection, money, or basic necessities,
Samuel Hall Stories recently published a personal account of Alia*, a queer Ugandan woman who was physically assaulted after her relationship with a woman came to light. Gender is one of many factors that influence and interact with power dynamics in society to shape GBV experiences. It is a factor that connects a variety of complicated and intersecting identities.
Members of the queer community, who are known to be at increased risk of GBV exposure due to diverse factors, require protection-focused measures that take into account the specific conditions that may exacerbate or lessen their susceptibility.
Navigating The Way Forward
Samuel Hall remains committed to being part of wider efforts aimed at tackling all forms of GBV. One of the ways in which we engage in this space is to undertake gender-transformative approaches which ensure that voices of girls and women are heard, centred and acknowledged in our research.
Our research with UNICEF on addressing gender-based violence in the Rohingya Refugee Response suggests that ‘targeting women through sustainable, inclusive programmes will increase women’s decision-making power within households, leading to empowerment, changes in gender imbalances, & connecting women to social support networks.’
There is limited but growing evidence that cash can potentially address GBV in humanitarian circumstances in a variety of ways, including household economic relief lowering the incidence of forms of GBV such as child, early and forced marriage and polygyny.
Targeting women may also strengthen women’s decision-making power inside homes, resulting in increased degrees of empowerment and transformation in gender disparities, as well as linking women to social support networks. Similarly, one of the strategies put forward by the Global Compact on Migration (GCM) addresses both gender inequality and GBV through national labour laws, employment policies, and programmes. This strategy acknowledges women’s independence, autonomy, and leadership while attempting to lessen their vulnerability by boosting their access to labour markets.
“The establishment of women’s centres has been a great success because at least women have a safe place where they can go for their activities, where they can raise and discuss their problems. Raising their voices, and discussing their problems, are things they can’t do in their households. I think these centres can really help for instance as a place where livelihood programming can be integrated and scaling them up would be very positive because they already have the services and platforms.”
— A Key Informant from UNFPA
Climate change is one of the risk factors that lead to forced displacement, is also a gendered vulnerability for some more than others. Women, who do the household work are more prone to climate induced vulnerabilities. This also means they are more adept at creating strategies for coping with climate change on a local level. One of the ways to increase women’s decision making power and empower them is to harness their knowledge and help them create their own agency through community interventions addressing GBV and issues like climate change.
It is imperative to invest efforts and strategies in protecting the rights of migrants and refugees while creating safer and more inclusive policies, programmes and legislative reforms. Establishing local helplines for migrants that are locally available and accessible hence increasing the potability of social protection services across the region.
As part of governments’ and UN bodies’ refugee response efforts, ensuring GBV survivors’ access to critical services such as education, work opportunities, and sexual and reproductive health care is an important step. Government agencies should partner and collaborate with local organisations, UN bodies and the humanitarian community to improve safety and services for at-risk individuals and survivors of GBV.
International NGOs and UN agencies should advocate for increased resources to strengthen the implementation of high-quality and specialised programmes for women and girls. Actors should also work with male survivors of sexual violence and survivors with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities through specialised programming.
There is a urgent need to develop programming that addresses sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and shifting discriminatory gender norms by including perpetrators as well as survivors in programmes.
Adopting a gender-sensitive approach is essential to safeguarding the rights of every individual at any stage in their migration journey. An approach which takes into consideration the specific needs of migrant and refugee women and children & ensuring countries have strategic policy frameworks to manage current and future migration is paramount.
Follow Samuel Hall’s campaign on #16DaysofActivism against Gender-Based Violence on our socials for more insights and recommendations.
*Names have been changed to protect identity
Photographs are for representational purposes only.
