A rape survivor who fled Afghanistan was allegedly blinded in one eye by her husband in France, following Home Office delays to bring her to safety in the UK, reports The Guardian.
The woman, an asylum seeker who cannot be named for legal reasons, fled her home country with her three young children after being subjected to a series of rapes, not by her husband.
She feared she could be murdered if family members discovered what had happened to her and was particularly fearful of her husband’s reaction if he found out.
The woman has a sister in the UK who is a British citizen. She and her children managed to reach France and then applied for family reunion in the UK with her sister under regulations known as Dublin III.
The Home Office refused a request from France to take charge of the woman’s asylum claim in April. Following legal proceedings by the woman’s solicitor in July 2019, the Home
Office agreed to reconsider the case, only to refuse it again in September.
The woman told her solicitor that her husband followed her to France and she believed her life could be at risk from him.
On October 15th, her solicitor wrote to the Home Office warning against delays to bring the woman and her children to the UK. “It is a potentially extremely serious domestic situation which must be speedily resolved,” the solicitor wrote.
She received no response from the Home Office to her letter, nor to a follow-up email emphasising the danger the woman was in.
On November 3rd, the woman says she was violently attacked by her husband. He beat her and stabbed her with a knife through her right eye. She was rushed to Lille Central hospital for treatment for her injuries.
Her solicitor wrote to the Home Office on November 6th informing them of the attack, but still received no response. On 12 November, she issued urgent legal proceedings and obtained an a court order instructing the Home Office to expedite bringing the woman and her children to the UK.
On November 28th, the Home Office agreed to bring the woman and her children to the UK. However, they are still in France.
The French media reported the alleged attack on the woman by her husband and said he had tried to take out her other eye but she managed to push him away. He was arrested and taken into police custody.
The woman’s sister has been going back and forth between the UK and France to look after her.