The UK SEREDA research project, led by IRiS's Professor Jenny Phillimore and researcher Dr Sandra Pertek, was launched at the House of Lords in November.
The UK SEREDA research project, led by Professor Jenny Phillimore and researcher Dr Sandra Pertek from the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS), was launched at the House of Lords on 29th November 2021.
THE SEREDA project is a major new research initiative that is being undertaken across the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden and Turkey by a multi-country research team from the University of Birmingham, University of Melbourne, Uppsala University and Bilkent University. The Project uses a social constructivist framework to understand the incidence and nature of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) experienced by women, men and child refugees who have fled conflict in the Levant Region.
Shadow Cabinet Minister Jess Phillips introduced the project, which was well attended by MPs, NGOs, and members of the House of Lords. A victim of SGBV, Hane Leshaj, bravely shared her experiences with the audience.
The launch involved the publication of a groundbreaking new report, exploring the ways in which the UK’s asylum system is failing sexual and gender-based violence survivors. The report found that asylum interviews were sometimes abusive and insensitive to gender, and that asylum accomodation was not fit for purpose, offering little access to physical and mental health care. Forced migrants in asylum accomodation had experienced sexual harrassment, along with other kinds of trauma.
Findings received strong media attention and were featured on Sky News, GB News, and The Guardian. Study leaders have also published a blog on LSE British Politics and Policy.
“There’s a lot that we could do that costs nothing, or costs little, and would ensure we could treat women in a way that won’t scar them for the rest of their lives," says Professor Phillimore. “We’ve developed a whole range of recommendations from our research, but ultimately, we want a humane asylum system that doesn’t treat people differently because they are not citizens. We need an ethics of care.”
Professor of Migration and Superdiversity
Professor Phillimore is a world leading scholar in refugee integration, superdiversity and access to social welfare.
UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the School of Government and School of Social Policy and Society
Dr Pertek specialises in the intersection of gender, violence, religion, forced migration and humanitarianism.
