This new research report makes interesting reading: Unsustainable: the quality of initial decision-making in women's asylum claims. The full report can be downloaded from the website here
There are long held concerns about the treatment of women seeking asylum in the UK, and the research findings only deepened this concern. Looking at a sample of forty-five cases from three UKBA regions, Unsustainable found that:
? the UKBA did not accept the credibility of women's asylum claims in the vast majority of cases;
? women were refused asylum on grounds that were often arbitrary, subjective, and demonstrated limited awareness of the UK's legal obligations under the Refugee Convention;
? the UKBA case owners at times displayed a striking failure to understand the nature of the persecution from which women might flee. This poor understanding led to case owners doubting the credibility of applicant?s accounts for no good reason. For example:
? One woman ? whose passport had been confiscated by her husband, and from whom she had been subjected to threats, abuse and humiliation ? was informed by the UKBA that she was not considered a victim of domestic violence because her husband had only tried to hit her once
? One refusal letter made repeated reference to an arranged marriage when considering the case of a woman who had been forced into marriage at fourteen to a man who had subsequently abused her over many years
? At one asylum interview, the case owner stated that they had never before heard the term ?female circumcision?
? a disproportionately high number of the asylum refusals issued to women were subsequently overturned on appeal. 42% of the initial refusals in our sample were overturned by an independent immigration judge (the average across all cases is just 28%); this number rose to 50% when including rulings made after the reconsideration of an initial appeal 

? case law and Country of Origin Information was used selectively or unrepresentatively
Responding to the research, the UKBA has acknowledged for the first time that its own internal figures also show that a disproportionately high number of the refusals issued to women asylum seekers are overturned on appeal.
The executive summary is available here .