{"id":27937,"date":"2019-01-02T12:53:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T12:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=27937"},"modified":"2019-01-02T13:00:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T13:00:10","slug":"victims-of-forced-marriages-hit-with-rescue-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/02\/victims-of-forced-marriages-hit-with-rescue-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Victims of forced marriages hit with rescue fees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Foreign Office has been patented “morally repugnant” for charging forced marriage victims for their own rescue. <\/strong>Those who cannot pay are given a loan and are deprived of their passport until the debt is repaid, according to a newspaper report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victims of forced marriages must pay for their plane ticket,\nfood and shelter themselves, or – if they are over 18 – they can take out\nemergency loans from the government, according to an investigation by The\nTimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women who have taken out loans have had their passports\ncancelled, and were told they cannot get a new one until the debt is repaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 10% surcharge is also added if the emergency loan is not\nrepaid within six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Times, four young British women were sent by\ntheir families to a “correctional school” in Somalia in 2018, where\nthey were imprisoned and physically abused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime\nMinister Theresa May once described forced marriage as a “tragedy for each\nand every victim”, while Home Secretary Sajid Javid vowed in August to\n“do more to combat it and support victims”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

News\nthat victims were made to pay the costs of their return to the UK was met with\nanger from some MPs, with one likening it to the Windrush scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shadow\nforeign secretary Emily Thornberry said: “It is morally repugnant for the\nForeign Office to charge British victims of forced marriage for the costs of\nbringing them home, and rank hypocrisy given the past statements made on this\nissue by the prime minister and home secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dozens\nof the most vulnerable women in the most desperate circumstances have been\npenalised for turning to their government for help, and many more may have been\nput off from seeking that help because of the costs involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The\nForeign Office must immediately scrap these charges, and write off all\noutstanding debts owed by women brought home in recent years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom\nTugendhat, the Tory chairman of the foreign affairs select committee said The\nTimes report was “astonishing” and that questions would be asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said\nthat while the Foreign office is “rightly proud” for the work it does\non the issue, “we shouldn’t be charging the most vulnerable for their own\nprotection or dissuading them from asking for it”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvette\nCooper, chairwoman of the home affairs committee, said: “Forced marriage\nis slavery. For the government to make victims pay for their freedom is\nimmoral. Ministers need to put this right fast.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fellow\nLabour MP David Lammy branded it “unconscionable”, adding: “Just\nlike the Windrush scandal yet more evidence of how differently this government\nis prepared to treat black or brown British citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A\nwhite woman who had been kidnapped, sold into slavery and raped would never\nhave been asked to pay for her freedom.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nForeign Office, which jointly runs a Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) with the Home\nOffice, said it has a requirement to recover money spent on repatriating\nvictims when public money is convoluted, such as the cost of a flight back to\nthe UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nForeign Office spokeswoman said: “We recognise that an emergency loan can\nhelp remove a distressed or vulnerable person from risk when they have no other\noptions, but as they are from public funds we have an obligation to recover the\nmoney in due course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When\npeople contact us for help to return to the UK, we work with them to access\ntheir own funds, or help them contact friends, family or organisations that can\ncover the costs of returning to the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“However,\nmany of the victims who the Forced Marriage Unit help are vulnerable, and when\noffering any type of support their safety is our primary concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The\nForced Marriage Unit also provides funding for safe houses and NGOs overseas\nand in the UK to ensure victims of forced marriage can get to a place of safety\nas soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\ndo not charge British nationals for this service and work with organisations in\nthe UK to support them on return.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nForeign Office helped 27 victims of forced marriage return to the UK in 2017\nand 55 in 2016, according to figures quoted by the newspaper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Foreign Office has been patented “morally repugnant” for charging forced marriage victims for their own rescue. Those who cannot pay are given a loan and are deprived of their passport until the debt is repaid, according to a newspaper report. Victims of forced marriages must pay for their plane ticket, food and shelter themselves, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,3,112],"tags":[386,1791,1790],"class_list":["post-27937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-top-stories","tag-forced-marriages","tag-prime-minister-theresa-may","tag-the-foreign-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}