Stoly Jankovic

• STOJAN Jankovic is free after a massive outpouring of community support, but thousands are still inside.

We campaign and help run self-help sessions for women asylum seekers. Every year over 30,000 women and men are detained without warning; some stay inside for years.

Authorities know how hard it is to fight your case from inside, and we’ve found judges more likely to be racist, sexist and biased when decisions are made behind closed doors, away from the community.

The immigration and asylum system is deliberately complicated. Legal aid cuts mean that many people can’t get solicitors, and go to hearings unrepresented. About 70 per cent of women asylum seekers have suffered rape. The impact of rape is downgraded and dismissed by the home office which will use any means to reject claims.

Last month one of our volunteers, a 57-year-old grandmother who had escaped gang rape and torture, was suddenly taken from her family and detained in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre. It took weeks of campaigning to win her release.

About half the members of the All African Women’s Group, a self-help group of women seeking asylum and refugees, which meets at the Crossroads Women’s Centre where we are based, have been held in detention.

We’ve known Mr Jankovic (fondly known as “Stoly”) for years – a welcoming, patient and cheerful figure in our local health food shop. We often refer women to him if they need help with pur­chases, have a disability or only speak a little English.

The campaign needs to continue so Mr Jankovic can win the right to stay.

Many others still inside have fewer family or friendship networks to call on outside. But we can build on the victory of Mr Jankovic’s release and widen the fight to include shutting down detention centres, and pressing for the right for all of us to live in safety.

CRISTEL AMISS
Black Women’s Rape Action Project