Women Asylum Seekers in the UK – Short Film

In collaboration with Hope Projects in Birmingham, Anti-Type Films and the Twelve 01 Project, CTDC has produced a short documentary film about women asylum seekers in the UK and the challenges they face awaiting their case to be determined. The film is based on interviews with women asylum seekers, academics and practitioners.

It highlights many of the issues women face including destitution, sex work and lack of material resources. Research for this film demonstrated that the issue of destitution is particularly challenging and showed that asylum law indirectly encourages women to have children, while waiting for their asylum, in order for them to not become destitute. This film also shows that the experience of women asylum seekers is different from men asylum seekers, and that it is particularly challenging for women, if they come to the UK as dependent on a male relative or partner.

The film does not only explore the processes of asylum and how it affects women negatively, but it also shows how women also face other challenges, which are in most cases not talked about within conversations about asylum. For example, women feel a disconnect from their countries, communities, and families of origin, when in the UK, especially when their asylum process takes sometimes up to ten years, if not more.

The film is available on the centre’s YouTube Channel.