Britain hosts conference on combating forced marriage
LONDON, Oct 24: Britain kicked off a two-day European conference on Wednesday focused on sharing its experience in tackling the horrors of forced marriage.
Marriages without consent, or their refusal, have led to suicides and honour killings in Britain, shocking a nation generally deemed to have successfully absorbed immigrant communities and practices.
Britain considers forced marriages — as distinct from accepted arranged marriages — as a transgression of human rights and a form of domestic abuse and fears there may be many more cases than the ones it knows about.
The government has, however, decided against outlawing the practice, for fear that criminalisation would force the issue further underground, with victims unwilling to press charges against their parents. Rape, domestic violence and kidnap laws are used instead.
The conference heard from British government ministers, police detectives and forced marriage “survivors” who have gone on to establish refuges and networks helping victims of the practice.
Delegates from across the European Union were told of shocking cases where women were murdered to uphold family honour, burnt themselves to death to escape forced marriages.
Victims are often disowned, considered dead by their families if they refuse to consent to such marriages.
Britain’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), established in 2005, receives around 5,000 calls and deals with about 300 cases per year. However, officials fear this is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Men account for 15 per cent of the cases. The majority of cases dealt with are individuals aged 15 to 24. Around 30 per cent involve minors, some as young as 10 years old.
The FMU said 65 per cent of the cases involved Pakistan, 25 per cent Bangladesh, a small percentage in India, with the rest involving countries across the globe, including Ireland and Italy.
Often forced marriages are used as a way to gain entry to Britain.
The FMU’s Peter Abbot told the conference some 200 girls disappeared each year from schools registers just in the northern English city of Bradford, which has a high South Asian population.
The FMU has rescued people trapped in forced marriages abroad, often in dangerous circumstances for both the victims and officials alike.
Foreign Office minister Meg Munn stressed: “These cases happen across the world. It’s not a religious issue, it’s not a cultural issue. This is a human rights issue. It happens in all sorts of places, not because of people’s religion.”—AFP
