Event Recording
Transnational Marriage Abandonment, Domestic Abuse and Migrant Women
Background
Following the landmark case of AM, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 2591 (Admin) (14 October 2022), new measures will be introduced by the Home Office to address the problem of transnational marriage abandonment – an emerging form of domestic abuse.
On 31 January 2024, new immigration rules come into force that allow victims of domestic abuse who are abandoned overseas to apply to re-enter the UK after domestic abuse related relationship breakdown. Before this, protections for victims of domestic abuse under the immigration rules only applied to those inside the UK meaning when victims were coerced or deceived into leaving the UK and abandoned overseas they were prevented from returning and exercising their legal rights under family and immigration laws.
Summary
This co-produced event goes into the background of the phenomenon of transnational marriage abandonment, the issues facing abandoned women and the rights they are denied because of this form of abuse. It will address how the family justice system and the immigration system have dealt with it until now. It will also cover the new immigration rules and guidance relating to victims of transnational marriage abandonment and give tips to frontline professionals working with abandoned women to assist in handling these difficult cases.
Chairs
- Nicole Masri, Senior Legal Officer at Rights of Women
- Zoe Bantleman, Legal Director at ILPA
Speakers
- Professor Sundari Anitha, Chair in Sociological Studies at University of Sheffield
- Pragna Patel, Founder and Co-Director at Project Resist
- Sulema Jahangir, Solicitor and Partner at Dawson Cornwell
- Nath Gbikpi, Solicitor at Leigh Day Solicitors
- Nicole Masri, Solicitor and Senior Legal Officer at Rights of Women
Recorded: 8th February 2024
