Beatings, rape and non-stop work

[ahlam1399]

UK women enslaved into forced marriagesBy Monitoring deskBetrayed by her own family, isolated from the outside world and raped daily by her violent husband, one desperate teenager turned to a confidential helpline.The 17-year-old from the north of England first met her abusive partner the day before she was forced to marry the middle-aged man in Britain. She was 16 at the time, but her road to forced marriage in the UK began years earlier.As an infant she was taken to Somalia, where she underwent the most extreme form of female genital mutilation, without any pain relief. Disclosing her secret more than a decade later to a call handler at a forced marriage charity, she confided that on her wedding night, her “husband” cut her open with a knife so he could consummate their marriage.The vulnerable teenager is among thousands of forced marriage victims believed to be living as modern-day slaves in Britain – and who experts say should be given increased protection through the use of human trafficking laws.In a call last year she told the human rights charity Karma Nirvana that she was being kept in the house and beaten and raped by her husband. When she became pregnant she thought she would be left alone, but the abuse continued.Alex, a senior call handler who spoke to the girl, said: “After the initial call she rang back to say she had undergone FGM again, this time under the instructions of her husband. She was distressed and said she would be prevented from seeing health workers during her pregnancy in case the FGM was detected.”She was talked through her options but later made one last call to say things had got worse and she could see no way out. Alex said: “Tragically, we never heard from her again. It’s probably the most heartbreaking case I’ve dealt with.”In 2017 the charity fielded more than 700 calls from under-18s. Among other callers was a 22-year-old British woman seeking advice after a forced marriage in Pakistan. Her parents were coercing her to work six days a week so her earnings would reach the required threshold to sponsor her foreign spouse to come to the UK.A 55-year-old woman travelled to the UK from Pakistan on a visit visa before being forced to marry her British employer. She said he treated her like a slave, making her work non-stop and tracking her down when she tried to flee.He extended the abuse to her daughters in Pakistan by ordering membersof the community to target them. Specialist workers were able to advocate on her behalf and she has since been granted refugee status.Ameera Jamil, a senior call handler, said: “Victims are reluctant to go to police for fear they won’t be believed. Where they come from such abuse might be tolerated or if the victim is a man they would be ridiculed.More than 3,500 reports of forced marriage were made to police over a three-year period, a Guardian investigation has found, as charities warned that there were thousands more victims living in conditions of modern slavery in homes across the UK.Data shared exclusively with the Guardian revealed 3,546 reports between 2014 and 2016. But experts warn that the figures, collected by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation under the Freedom of Information Act, are just the tip of the iceberg.Over the same three-year period one national helpline run by another NGO received 22,030 calls from individuals or agencies concerned about a forced marriage. In 2017 the NGO Karma Nirvana received a further 8,870 calls, including more than 200 from or about children under 15, and gave advice regarding eight new clients under 10.The new figures reveal the shocking extent of forced marriage in Britain – a crime experts say should be investigated and prosecuted as a form of modern slavery.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/0lO3NbwG_Hk

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