Victims of sexual violence are a blind spot in asylum procedure

Ahead of International Women’s Day 2023, iMMO and Amnesty International published a joint report on how sexual violence is recognized and acknowledged during the asylum procedure. The report is based on research in 80 iMMO cases in which sexual violence had been identified. Amnesty conducted legal research. iMMO analyzed the medical records. This showed that in two-thirds of these cases, sexual violence had not or almost not been addressed during the asylum procedure.

“In 34 of the 50 cases investigated by iMMO, it appears that very important medical information is left out because the IND does not receive this information,” says Annemieke Keunen, director of iMMO: “As a result, medical signals indicating sexual violence and other human rights violations are not sufficiently used in the asylum procedure. This is a wider problem, which iMMO is happy to discuss with the IND.”

From iMMO, contributions to the study were made by J. Steen (psychologist), A. Keunen (director), E. Kors (psychologist) and S. Swen (physician).

>>> Read Amnesty’s press release here (external link)
>>> Read the full report here