The COVID-19 pandemic affected all of us, especially the most vulnerable groups such as migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls in Europe. Domestic and care workers lost their jobs and housing, asylum applications were put on hold, victims of male violence were trapped at home and many women turned to prostitution, increasing the number of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Europe has gradually recovered from the pandemic. However, these women continue to live at extreme risk of unemployment, poverty, homelessness, trafficking, domestic violence, exploitation in prostitution and labour exploitation.
Project FULFIL is funded by the CERV programme and led by the European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW). The EnoMW was concerned with the question of what kind of legal protection is available in the EU to migrant women and girls who continue to live behind multiple barriers to justice.
First, the EnoMW conducted a legal mapping of undocumented migrant women's access to fundamental rights at the European Union level (including mobile citizens) and in nine countries, namely Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, and Greece. Based on the mapping, the project developed:
- capacity-building of legal professionals in the area of strategic litigation on the cases of breaches of fundamental rights of migrant women in Europe,
- capacity-building of migrant women and civil society organisations (CSOs) working with them on legal cases,
- a case-law database.
FULFIL’s capacity building programme for legal practitioners will be crucial to advance in the legal protection of migrant women in Europe.
To learn more about the project, visit its website.
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