Gender and Asylum in the United States

Around the world women often suffer persecution just because they are female, and experience persecution differently because they are women. Women who are beaten by their husbands, raped with impunity, forcibly sterilized, ritually mutilated, sold into sexual slavery and targeted for death by relatives in the name of family honor can become refugees when their governments fail to protect them. Some of them flee to the United States in search of safety.

The United States has for many years had a proud tradition of protecting refugees, and has set an example for other countries in protecting women from gender-related violence. But the ability of refugee women to gain asylum in the U.S. was significantly undermined by a 1996 immigration law called the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.” That law created new barriers for asylum seekers which have affected thousands of refugee women. A woman from the Dominican Republic who fled severe domestic violence was ordered deported under the Act’s summary expedited removal process. A rape survivor from Albania was deported to her country of persecution under the same process. Women who have fled forced marriage, rape, forced sterilization, domestic violence, and other gender-related violence have been detained in jails - sometimes for lengthy periods of time, without the opportunity to challenge their detention before a judge. Other women who sought asylum based on fears of “honor killings” and genital mutilation have had their asylum claims rejected based on the one-year filing deadline.

The hurdles facing not only women but all refugees have only multiplied as a result of actions taken by the U.S. government in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Sources within the Justice Department have confirmed that Attorney General John Ashcroft intends to reverse a critical decision made in the case of Ms. Rodi Alvarado, a Guatemalan survivor of severe domestic violence. Not only would this reversal force Ms. Alvarado to return to harm’s way in Guatemala, it also has the potential to impact all women seeking asylum in the United States based on gender-related abuse. New asylum regulations circulating within the Justice Department will severely limit the ability of women fleeing trafficking, sexual slavery, honor killing, domestic violence, and other gender-related human rights abuses from seeking asylum in the United States.

The Lawyers Committee continues to call upon the U.S. government to restore fairness to the asylum process so that vulnerable women refugees who have already endured severe persecution are not unfairly denied a safe haven in this country.

The Lawyers Committee report “Refugee Women at Risk” tells the stories of refugee women seeking asylum in the U.S. Click here to read the full report.

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