Forced Marriges

“Forced marriage is defined as being when one or both spouses do not consent to the marriage, or when consent is extracted under duress – which can include physical, psychological, financial, sexual and emotional pressure” According to an article in the Guardian.  It’something that affects a lot of people and something that the government is trying to tackle by setting up a whole department on it, called the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU).  This is a delicate topic and I am going to try and stick only to what has been uncovered and what can be seen.

In 2009 a report was made into raising the spouse visa age from 18 to 21.  The copy of it can be seen here.  Had any of you thought about this?  Amazing stuff when you think about it.  Also the UK border force did a review into new ways of preventing forced marriage and how to deal with it.  The full report can be found here.  The issue with both of these, is whilst they provide a good context of things to look at, they are eight years out of date (At time of writing), so do not show us the latests attempts at preventing it.

Which leads me on to local councils and what they are doing.  Wales has a dedicated unit looking at modern day slavery (Partly falling within the remit of this post).  Which is makes me humble; that being said, the Welsh Government didn't give it any money last year.  SO what about at the local level?  What are Welsh Councils doing to help stop forced marriage?  There is a section of Gov.co.uk which looks at this, and you can find it here.  

A full account of NHS training can be found by the amazing Ruth Atkinson.  She has asked all of the NHS authorities of the training and guidance that is given to the front line staff in the NHS.  Again it goes to show what you can do when you are determined (And in some respects the vast difference in training).  

Full disclosure in wrapping up.  I used all of my www.whatdotheyknow requests for the day.  If I had then I would have asked a few more requests (So this is a topic that I will return to).  The thing that springs to mind is that there is a lot of help on the topic.  It is more than something that is being swept under the rug.  I love the fact that this goes from the Foreign and Commonwealth office to the Home office.  Maybe when I get my ten a day back, I can start asking some more questions and seeing what else there is out there on this topic.