Migrant women: one in five suffers sexual violence

This year, UNHCR predicts that the number of individuals forced from their homes due to war, violence and persecution will exceed a record 130 million. There are currently around 114 million displaced people, with over half of them women and girls. The issue of sexual violence during the migration journey is the drama within the drama. While available statistics may not fully reflect the scale of the problem, they indicate that one in five women has experienced violence of this type. Humanitarian emergencies tend to affect women and minors more acutely: in Chad, for example, the majority of refugees fleeing from Sudan are women and children, and a large portion of these women find themselves having to take care of their children in solitude. A similar situation occurs in northern Mozambique. Data relating to Italy confirm this trend: women who cross the Mediterranean to escape dangerous situations face very serious dangers. Libya’s prisons, infamous for violence, are only part of the problem. In 2023, Italy saw the arrival of more than 157,000 refugees and migrants by sea, with women making up just 10% of these but often suffering sexual violence along the way, sometimes leading to unwanted pregnancies. Although Italy has put in place measures to support victims of gender violence, in accordance with international standards, significant gaps remain in the concrete application of the regulations, especially with regards to the recognition and intervention against gender violence at national level. national.