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UK asylum guide spells out laws on consent, child sex, domestic abuse and harassment
LONDON: The UK home office has published a series of posters and a booklet for asylum-seekers informing them that the “laws and customs here may be different from your home country”, that “sex without consent is rape”, sex with a child is a serious crime, and approaching someone repeatedly if they are not interested is “harassment”.The pamphlet, “Understanding Behaviours and Expectations in the UK”, informs asylum-seekers that women in the UK can work, study, choose who to marry, wear what they want, travel, and make their own decisions, without needing permission from a man.It tells them they must never “physically or verbally abuse or control” their family or partner, and that in the UK “the law is clear and strict: both people must agree to sex or sexual contact of any kind”, and “if someone is asleep, drunk, or unable to respond, they cannot consent”.The guide informs asylum-seekers that “anyone under the age of 16 is considered a child and cannot legally agree to have sex”. “Even if they look older, or it is allowed in another country, you must never have sex with anyone under 16,” it says.It comes after Ethiopian Hadush Kebatu, staying at an asylum hotel, was deported after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, telling her it was normal to marry children “in his country”.
A poster warns asylum-seekers never to leave a child alone, nor to physically hurt a child, and that female genital mutilation is illegal. Another says it is illegal to hurt your partner or family, which includes “hitting, pushing or any physical violence”.Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “This tells us all we need to know about the kind of people illegally entering our country. Illegal and legal immigrants are coming from places and societies where attitudes towards women are completely incompatible with Western society.
It seems like every day there is another report of an illegal immigrant raping or assaulting women and girls here.”UK PM Andy Burnham defended the booklet, saying it was important to “make explicitly clear what the UK law and societal norms are”.A total of 93,525 people claimed asylum in the UK in the year ending March 2026. The top five nationalities were from Pakistan, Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
