ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to document otherwise invisible forms of violence and harm that are prolific in women's lives, as well as the broader harms that people seeking asylum face in Britain and other countries with similar punitive approaches to asylum. It focuses on resistance and survival. Since 'naming the state as criminal and exposing the way states work to hide or obscure state perpetrated crimes challenges this denial'. The chapter argues that the same aspects resonate with resisting harm, power and structural or patriarchal violence. It highlightes that gaps in consciousness are embedded in state and organisational responses to refugees with regard to sexual violence, domestic abuse, and ongoing gendered violences in the asylum system. Organisations that have been supporting illegalised immigrants and people seeking asylum, or challenging certain aspects of the asylum system for many years have become more and more prominent in wider areas of media than before, increasing their visibility in public consciousness.
