The All African Women’s Group -Emmanuella Nsiah
The All African Women’s Group (AAWG), which formed in 2002, is a “self-help group of asylum and refugee women who have come together across nationality and often different sides of political conflicts to fight for their right to protection in the UK” (All African Women’s Group Archives). The group of about 60 women meets every two weeks at the Crossroads Women’s Centre. Here they are able to plan their campaigns and workshop their own and their fellow members’ cases collectively. Two key changes in early 21st century U.K. contributed to the emergence of AAWG. Firstly, the “feminization of migration”¹ has led to increased visibility for migrant women and as such, has created a growing space in society for migrant women activism. Figures estimate that women make up over 50% of migrants to Europe and certain migratory routes are made up almost entirely of women. The migratory experience is heavily influenced by the migrant’s gender, class, race, age, sexual orientation, ability, etc. which impacts the causes and means of migration as well as their experiences when they reach a new country (Freedman) .The second key change that led to the formation of AAWG was the introduction of the 2002 Immigration and Asylum Act. Specifically, when Section 55 of the act, which removed the right to welfare support for asylum seekers who failed to file an application upon arriving in the country, was met with protests. A group of Eritrean asylum seeking women were refused housing under the terms of this act and organized a public protest outside Refugee Council offices in London. Women from other African nations who shared similar experiences joined the protestors and through this AAWG was born. One of the founders emphasizes the importance of self-mobilization in that “traditionally, asylum seekers in this country have remained silent for fear of deportation. We have allowed others to speak on our behalf, but because the situation we find ourselves in here is disastrous we are starting to speak up for ourselves” (Freedman) and thus the work of AAWG began.
AAWG campaigns for mothers to be reunited with their children, against racism, to end destitution and detention, and for housing, healthcare, protection, and resources for every woman. (All African Women’s Group Archives). Many of the group’s members are refugees who’ve fled persecution and war, survivors of rape, mothers, LGBTQ+, and more marginalized identites. They are women whose asylum claims have been denied and the state has left them without food, shelter, or money to fend for themselves. AAWG works to speak out publicly and fight against these injustices that many asylum seekers in the UK face. Apart from their biweekly workshop meetings, AAWG partners with other women’s organizations like the Black Women Against Rape Action Project, Global Women’s Strike, Legal Action for Women, and Women Against Rape. Together, these organizations work to support women in detention centers, particularly the Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre. Members answer calls from women in detention center, offering them a lifeline. During these calls, AAWG members draw upon their own experiences to give detained women advice and legal guidance as they navigate the UK’s complex bureaucratic system. The group’s hard work is guided by the 17 demands they created to build a “world without borders”. A few examples include: an end to detention, end the hostile environment for asylum seekers, immigrants, and refugees, stop all deportation charter flights, the right to waged work for people seeking asylum, an end to the deliberate policy of destitution for asylum seekers whose cases have been refused, and many more important demands (All African Women’s Group Demands). Migrant women’s experiences are shaped by the “legislative and policy-regimes of the countries they have left, those they transit through and those that they finally arrive in” (Freedman), and AAWG actively fights the U.K.’s racist and discriminatory policies set in place to oppress migrant and asylum seeking women. Above all, the All African Women’s Group works to give refugee and asylum seeking women the agency to organize and speak for themselves and their communities.
The All African Women’s group is a form of resistance in both its very existence and through the work that it does. The group formed during a time where the rights of refugee women were directly under attack by racist government policies. Despite little access to institutional funding and support, AAWG has managed to withstand the test of time. Many small-scale mobilizations organized by refugee women face the same barriers and as a result tend to be temporary and sporadic (Freedman) but AAWG through community funding and support has continued their work well into 2021. Additionally, the existence of AAWG has created a safe space for asylum seekers and refugees to express their own political agency and oppose mainstream representations of themselves as passive victims. The media portrays refugees as victims who are solely trying to survive their trauma and displacement but through AAWG, refugee women have created spaces to address their trauma and fight for asylum and the resources needed to survive. AAWG gives voice to migrants by not allowing big, funded NGOs to speak for and over asylum seekers, further resisting the narrative that refugee women are helpless and silent. They empower one another by organizing, sharing their own experiences, and speaking up for themselves. A founder of AAWG explains that “Being together with other women has really helped us to fight. We know that we can help each other, it’s very important for women to come together and share our experiences and help each other. We’ve managed to change our lives” (Freedman). As we considered earlier this semester with the Patricia Zavella piece, “Collaborating Across Difference”, testimonies and storytelling are crucial to social movements as they are a source of knowledge and empowerment. Survivors sharing their experiences centers the conversation about migration around human experiences rather than an unidentifiable other by giving them visibility in society. Through this, the organization is able to push back on violent racist and discriminatory institutions and policies that harm migrant communities. Statistics are easy to justify, but the voices and stories of marginalized women is hard to ignore.
Social factors such as race, ethnicity, ability, and specifically gender heavily influence the migrant experience. AAWG recognizes this and seeks to provide resources and support specifically geared towards women. However, the All African Women’s Group, despite the name, is a gender inclusive space that advocates for people who do not identify as cis-gender women. The group uplifts and supports non-binary mothers who have faced violence in their home countries because of their identity. Additionally, AAWG is committed to fighting against sexual and gender based violence. The group has a wide understanding of who commits gender based violence against migrant women which is reflected in their practices and demands. They recognize that gender based violence happens at the hands of both the UK state and the countries they’ve fled from. It is estimated that 50% of women asylum seekers leaving their country of origin are survivors of rape (All African Women’s Group Archives), and to face the same abuse after fleeing their homes is appalling. The detention of migrant women in the UK has become another form of gender based violence that asylum seekers are forced to endure. AAWG fights this by demanding that Home Office conduct “independent investigations into claims of rape and other sexual abuse against women in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre” (All African Women’s Group Demands). AAWG believes that necessary resources and standard protection for survivors of sexual violence is essential to their recovery and successful transition into the UK. In creating these demands, they partnered with other women’s organizations such as Women Against Rape and Black Women’s Rape Action Project which further contributes to the movement’s gendered perspective on oppression and empowerment. Through their own experiences and the experiences of others, the group saw a special need to organize and amplify the experiences of a particularly marginalized group in the UK. This gendered focus has continued throughout their work but the notion of gender has expanded over the course of the last 20 years in an effort to serve more migrant people in need.
¹ This term herecomes directly from the Freedom article and I was unsure how to rephrase it and still capture the essence of the piece. I think that the term feminization isn’t exactly what I use here to describe the UK’s legal recognition of women’s migration. Women have always migrated, they were simply denied visibility in the past.
Works Cited & Consulted
“All African Women's Group Archives.” Women Against Rape, 20 Mar. 2021, womenagainstrape.net/category/tags/all-african-womens-group/?fbclid=IwAR2oaeyGy5iPH5Zbf8ADZq--DG2G-O_r-GKlWfMmBWLvLh-AJb0gjzIYrzY.
All African Women's Group. “Demands - WWB.” Google Docs, 2 Jan. 2019, docs.google.com/document/d/1mecwjSdWkVYe3PYVfVGJtAk1-hsm80TgV74rf-_ZyrE/edit.
Al African Women’s Group. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/AllAfricanWomen/
Apple, Emily. “Two People Arrested after the Home Office Is 'Found Guilty' of 'Murder, Rape and Torture'.” The Canary, 14 Feb. 2019, www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2019/02/14/two-people-arrested-after-the-home-office-is-found-guilty-of-murder-rape-and-torture/.
Freedman, Jane. “Women, Migration and Activism in Europe.” Amnis, no. 8, 1 Sept. 2008, doi:10.4000/amnis.604.
“'Mothers and Children Should Be a Priority in This World and We Are Not'.” Morning Star, 8 Mar. 2019, morningstaronline.co.uk/article/%E2%80%98mothers-and-children-should-be-priority-world-and-we-are-not%E2%80%99.