2000 girls forced into marriage
Around two thousand girls of foreign origin living in Norway have been forced into arranged marriages in the last two years. This is a qualified estimate made by special advisor Terje Bjøranger, head of the UDI’s (home office) task group that specializes in combating forced marriages and honour related violence.
This shocking number was presented at a conference for the police and social services in Stavern yesterday.
Despite the very high number of forced marriages, and almost ten years of action plans to combat these marriages, little has been done to help the affected girls.
- Next to nothing have been done, and we’ve simply ran out of places to hide the girls, says Gunnar Svennson, member of the task group and special advisor on issues related to ethnic minorities at Sentrum Police station in Oslo.
Violence and death threats.
In two cases of forced marriages in Drammen, the local police had to send the girls to Sweden to give them proper protection and qualified help.
- We couldn’t find a place in Norway, says Nina Bjørlo, chief of the crime prevention department at Drammen police station.
Two Kurdish girls had been physically assaulted and received death threats from their cousins and brothers to enter arranged marriages that their families had organized.
* A seventeen year old girl was forced into a marriage while on summer holiday in Iraq, after having received death threats from her father and brother.The father was sentenced to two and a half years in jail, and the brother for two years, in what was the first conviction against such marriages in Norway.
* A sixteen year old girl was forced into a marriage while on summer holiday in Iraq. The girl has since disappeared in Iraq. The police have no knowledge of her whereabouts or what have happened to her. Her father has been charged with facilitating a forced marriage, and the police have made a recommendation to the district attorney that a criminal case is brought against him.
Lack of resources.
Not even the members of the UDI’s special task group are focusing on forced marriages on a full time basis. We simply haven’t got the resources to protect all the girls who’re threatened with murder for refusing to enter these marriages. The majority of the work are carried out by volunteer organizations and private individuals, without any form of public support.
- The situation can be compared to Rotary being given sole responsibility for working with rape victims. Citizens safety is a government responsibility, says Terje Bjøranger.
Economic importance.
In Sweden, several hundred million kroner ( Tens of millions of US dollars) have been invested in building shelters for these girls, and a lot of people are employed by the government to look after these victims.
The majority of the girls who’re forced into these marriages are from Pakistan and Kurdistan (northern Iraq). Most of them are young, some of them no more than fifteen.
The marriages have big economic implications for the families involved, and are often part of bigger arrangements between the families.
- In some cases the marriages have even been agreed upon before the girl were born, says Terje Bjøranger.
And the authorities in this country still try to convince us that the muslims in Norway are moderates....
This shocking number was presented at a conference for the police and social services in Stavern yesterday.
Despite the very high number of forced marriages, and almost ten years of action plans to combat these marriages, little has been done to help the affected girls.
- Next to nothing have been done, and we’ve simply ran out of places to hide the girls, says Gunnar Svennson, member of the task group and special advisor on issues related to ethnic minorities at Sentrum Police station in Oslo.
Violence and death threats.
In two cases of forced marriages in Drammen, the local police had to send the girls to Sweden to give them proper protection and qualified help.
- We couldn’t find a place in Norway, says Nina Bjørlo, chief of the crime prevention department at Drammen police station.
Two Kurdish girls had been physically assaulted and received death threats from their cousins and brothers to enter arranged marriages that their families had organized.
* A seventeen year old girl was forced into a marriage while on summer holiday in Iraq, after having received death threats from her father and brother.The father was sentenced to two and a half years in jail, and the brother for two years, in what was the first conviction against such marriages in Norway.
* A sixteen year old girl was forced into a marriage while on summer holiday in Iraq. The girl has since disappeared in Iraq. The police have no knowledge of her whereabouts or what have happened to her. Her father has been charged with facilitating a forced marriage, and the police have made a recommendation to the district attorney that a criminal case is brought against him.
Lack of resources.
Not even the members of the UDI’s special task group are focusing on forced marriages on a full time basis. We simply haven’t got the resources to protect all the girls who’re threatened with murder for refusing to enter these marriages. The majority of the work are carried out by volunteer organizations and private individuals, without any form of public support.
- The situation can be compared to Rotary being given sole responsibility for working with rape victims. Citizens safety is a government responsibility, says Terje Bjøranger.
Economic importance.
In Sweden, several hundred million kroner ( Tens of millions of US dollars) have been invested in building shelters for these girls, and a lot of people are employed by the government to look after these victims.
The majority of the girls who’re forced into these marriages are from Pakistan and Kurdistan (northern Iraq). Most of them are young, some of them no more than fifteen.
The marriages have big economic implications for the families involved, and are often part of bigger arrangements between the families.
- In some cases the marriages have even been agreed upon before the girl were born, says Terje Bjøranger.
And the authorities in this country still try to convince us that the muslims in Norway are moderates....
posted by The Observer at 6:52 AM
5 Comments:
A law should be passed in all of the western countries banning all forced marriages and will a collective stiff sentence for all the families concerned.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/06/wgermany06.xml
Sadly many of these young girls will have a life of complete hell, they are, in many cases, little more than slaves. This practice is truly barbaric
The muslims in Britain protested so
much that the government withdrew
the legislation to ban forced marriage. In my opinion, anyone that opposes this legislation has
admitted they do not suscribe to
European values or customs and should be returned whence they came.
Regarding the UK issue: the gov't did not pass a special law on forced marriages. That does not mean that forced marriages are legal in the UK.
There are many other laws which can be used to fight forced marriage, such as laws against rape and abduction.
A special law is very problematic. People will start asking how do you prove the marriage was forced and other such issues.
Instead of fighting for a special law, advocates of these girls should be fighting to make sure the current laws are being implemented in these cases.
Additionally, pressure the gov't to come out in no uncertain terms saying that forced marriages are unacceptable.
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