Who’s responsible for violence against migrant women? www.opendemocracy.net /beyondslavery/jane-freedman/who%E2%80%99s-responsible-for- violence-against-migrant-women Jane Freedman Migrant women are vulnerable to violence at all stages of their journey due to gendered inequalities and relations of domination. Current EU policies restricting migration exacerbate their vulnerability. One of hundreds of migrants arriving in Salerno in May, 2015. Michele Amoruso/Demotix. All Rights Reserved. EU leaders have been quick to blame the current migrant “crisis” in the Mediterranean on smugglers/traffickers, and plans have been put in place to try and break up smuggling/trafficking networks that supposedly threaten migrants’ security. However, when we examine migrants’ experiences more closely it becomes apparent that the EU’s increasingly restrictive policies of migration control constitute one of their main sources of insecurity. These cut down on legal avenues for migration, thereby forcing migrants to increasingly employ smugglers and to attempt evermore circuitous routes to reach Europe. These insecurities can be particularly severe for women migrants, as gendered relations of power create different forms of violence and vulnerability for women. These gendered relations of power often play out in various forms of violence, the perpetrators of which include fellow migrants (in some cases members of a woman’s close family or travelling companions), traffickers/smugglers, or police and state agents. These multiple forms of violence are the result of gendered inequalities of power that may already exist, but which are magnified and reinforced through migration. Policies that attempt to restrict migration do little or nothing to control this violence, and in many instances directly contribute to or intensify it. Research on many different regions of the world have highlighted the interconnections between gender, migration, violence, and insecurity. Different push and pull factors, migration control regimes, as well as the social and economic conditions found in the countries of origin, transit and destination create varying types of insecurity and violence for men and women. This variation depends greatly on the social and economic positions of the different actors and the relations of power that exist between