Asylum-seeking and migrant women face very many barriers to accessing legal advice and representation to help them find safety from violence and secure their status in the UK. They are caught between ever more complex immigration laws and decreasing (often absent) provision of legal aid and specialist services.

Our Athena Project seeks to ensure that asylum-seeking and migrant women affected by violence understand the law and their legal rights in the UK and are able to secure a future free of violence.

Our Athena Project activities and services are:

Migrant women’s advice project

We are delivering a pilot project in London to build the capacity of women’s and other advice organisations to give immigration law advice to women affected by violence.

We are working with organisations to support them to attain and maintain OISC regulation through practical support and advice in the application process, training and support to advisers to seek and maintain accreditation.

Over the three years of the project we hope to be able to work with more partners on this project. If you are interested in working with us contact us

Immigration and asylum law advice line

We offer free and confidential legal advice to migrant women and those who support them on our immigration and asylum law.

Find out more about our immigration and asylum advice line here.

If you are a professional supporting a migrant woman you can also get advice and information via our WoMAN.

WoMAN – the Women’s Asylum and Migration Network

This interactive forum is a place for information sharing amongst professionals working in gender, migration and violence against women.

It is a forum for sharing updates on case law, legislation and policy as well as a source of practical advice and assistance in individual cases. Members regularly post information about relevant research, training courses and events.

To join WoMAN you will need to set up a Google account (if you do not already have one). To join please send us an email to [email protected]

WoMAN is free and open to any professional interested in the group’s objectives.

Find more information about WoMAN in its Terms of Reference here.

Training and events

We provide high quality, practical training courses for practitioners working with vulnerable migrant and asylum-seeking women.

Find more information about our training and events here.