“Refugee women and asylum seekers in the European Union”: this is the topic of International Women’s Day 2016, a topic that the European institutions intend to emphasise. The EU Parliament in particular has planned to vote on the subject in Strasbourg on 8th March, during its plenary meeting. In addition, the EU Parliament will host a number of events in Brussels on 9th and 10th to draw attention to this problem. The resolution “on the situation of refugee women and asylum seekers in the EU” comes at a particularly delicate time, due to migratory pressure at the borders of the European Union. The text, drawn up by British MEP Mary Honeyball, states that “on average women make up one third of asylum seekers”; “the UN High Commissioner for Refugees pointed out that in January 2016 women and children make up 55% of asylum seekers who reach Greece”. And then: “too many people have already lost their lives during their journeys of hope, and many of them are women”, quite frequently coming from “countries that practice female genital mutilation” they flee from or have been the victims of. This is followed by a report about “rumours that women and children resort to survival sex to pay traffickers to continue their journey and seek asylum in the EU”.

Because of this, the resolution asks for special protection for women, children and old people; it points out that “there is an urgent need for ways to have access to asylum that are straightforward, lawful and safe to fight against the networks of human traffickers and to make it easier for women, children, old people and disabled people to seek asylum without risking their lives”. In addition, it reiterates that “safe, lawful ways to Europe are essential to effectively prevent such situation”.