Safe houses provide protection for people in danger, with different types including witness protection, shelters for abused women and children, sanctuaries for political asylum seekers, and places to hide from the law or military service. Safe houses are often kept secret and have strict security measures in place.
The term safe house has several definitions. Most of them involve protection for people in danger, but why people are in danger defines how the term safe house is used. There are some typical safe houses that can be considered:
A place where witnesses in danger can be safely protected by the police before giving testimony.
A shelter for abused women and their children.
A sanctuary for people seeking political asylum or protection from deportation.
A place to hide people in violation of the law.
From numerous movies about police and organized crime, many are most familiar with the safe house as a place to hide someone who will give convicting testimony in a trial. Such a safe house is organized by the police, usually in a remote location, and the security measures are strict. Only a few people know the location of the house, as there are fears that discovering the location could lead to an attempt to harm the witness or the police protecting him before testimony is delivered. In many movies, the location of the safe house is discovered, but usually this does not occur in real life.
The second form of safe house is a shelter, which again can have a secret or protected place where most women and their children can hide from abusive spouses and/or parents. Battered women’s shelters typically do not rely on police protection, but rather on the secrecy of their location. They may have security systems and very strict rules regarding contact with the outside world in order to protect all people who have taken refuge there. Only a few people who may be in contact with abused women know the location of the shelter. This could include medical staff, social workers and police officers.
During the reign of slavery in the southern states of the United States, many northern people and churches opened their doors to runaway slaves in Canada. These were also called safe houses and a real network was born. There was significant danger to the people running the safe house, especially as America approached Civil War. New laws could fine or jail people who somehow helped fugitive slaves. It was a sign of courage that supporters of the Underground Railroad continued to provide safe houses for escaped slaves in the hope that these people would one day be free.
Sometimes churches or individuals have taken the same approach by offering shelter to those seeking political asylum or attempting to escape deportation. In modern times in the United States, such shrines from churches tend to be illegal and can only be offered for a short period of time. The Sanctuary may exist primarily so that people seeking refuge can remain in the country while preparing better legal defenses to avoid deportation.
The safe house was also a common feature, and has become again, for those people who avoid military service. While the United States currently has no draft, draft dodgers in the 1970s could use a network of safe houses to avoid being sent to Vietnam, entering Canada. Several churches have offered temporary shelter to people already in the military who conscientiously oppose participation in certain wars, such as the one in Iraq.
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