The COVID-19 Crisis and the "Shadow Pandemic": Gender-based Violence Experienced by Migrant Women in the UK

Evidence has shown that the pandemic restrictions have increased rates of domestic violence globally (Loureiro, 2021). The COVID-19 crisis has shone light to the gender-based violence (GBV) crisis which pre-dates the pandemic, leading this to be labelled as the “shadow pandemic” (Dawsey-Hewitt et al., 2021). In the UK, the police recorded an increase in domestic abuse-related crimes during 2020. This follows a gradual increase in domestic abuse offences over recent years (ONS, 2020). Recent research and reports from the domestic abuse sector suggest that the pandemic has had considerable consequences to women’s safety. The increased demands faced by support services reflect the increase in the severity of the abuse suffered by women and barriers to help-seeking exacerbated by the pandemic (ONS, 2020; Walklate, Godfrey and Richardson, 2022). This briefing analyses the extent to which these impacts have been disproportionately felt by migrant women, whose vulnerabilities and help-seeking have been constrained by state responses to immigration and domestic violence.