Campaign seeks changes to the law to protect migrant women

Laws should be changed to give migrant women suffering from domestic abuse the chance to leave their partner without endangering their right to stay in the country, the Immigrant Council said yesterday.

The organisation said it had seen “a steady flow” of women contacting their services because they were resident in Ireland only on the basis of their spouse or partner’s work permit and were suffering violence in the home.

Addressing a conference organised by the council yesterday, British-based campaigner Pragna Patel said it had taken two decades of lobbying for the government there to grant status protections to vulnerable migrant women.