In 2017 and 2018 helped the British ministry of foreign affairs 82 women to escape from forced marriages abroad. According to The Times has come to the rescue come with a price tag. Four of the women says to the newspaper that they become liable 740£ each (just over 8,000 sek), for the flight home and expenses.
The uk foreign office justifying the payment request that the money used for the bailouts are public funds and that the agency therefore has an obligation to recover the money, reports the american CNN.
authority to their practice when someone contacts them for help with that journey home from a foreign country is to pay with the person’s own assets or to contact friends or relatives so that they can pay the costs for the return trip.
But under ”very special circumstances”, such as forced marriage, can the state Department offer emergency loans to assist someone to return home”. These loans are subject to interest on late payments if they are not repaid within six months. According to The Times, several of the women have become ruined by the costs.
the Newspaper reports that the uk authority has lent 7.765 lbs (just under 90,000 dollars), to at least eight women who have been victims of forced marriages.
have criticized the state Department on Twitter since kostnadshanteringen revealed by The Times.
”Completely horrified by this. Forced marriages are slavery. That the government forces victims to pay for their own freedom is immoral,” wrote Yvette Cooper, mp for the opposition Labour party.
”It cannot be right that vulnerable young women who have been abroad without being able to be blamed for it and forced into slavery, are asked to pay for their own protection,” writes Pragna Patel, the co-founder of the charity Southall Black Sisters.
