19 June 2008
A unique women's network and refuge, which helps victims of forced marriage and domestic violence, will be visited today by Justice Minister Bridget Prentice who will meet staff and users and raise awareness of the new Forced Marriage Act.
The Ashiana Network, a London-based service that runs refuges and counselling for female victims in Waltham Forest, offers one of the first safe houses for young women at risk specifically from forced marriage - the Ashiana Y Stop.
It also helps women from all London communities, especially Iranian, Turkish and Afghanistan.
The Ashiana Network dealt with 485 women from communities all over London last year of which 443 were new cases, and 419 of these cases were closed in the same year.
On top of current criminal protection, the Forced Marriage Act will provide robust civil remedies to protect victims or potential victims of forced marriage, and comes into force in the autumn.
Bridget Prentice said:
'The government has made great strides in tackling domestic violence and forced marriage and the Ashiana Network's excellent work is crucial to this. The new Forced Marriage Act is a powerful tool and will go a long way to ensuring that no-one will be forced into marriage against their will and those already in such marriages will receive protection.'
Sharminder Ubhi, Director of the Ashiana Network said:
'We are very encouraged by the Minister's support and welcome the government's commitment to protect those individuals at risk of forced marriage and look forward to the implementation of the Forced Marriage Act.
'The Minister's visit is particularly timely as we are shortly opening another refuge for women at risk of forced marriage in partnership with the London Borough of Waltham Forest and East Thames.'
Notes to editors
1. The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act
2. Forced marriage is a marriage without the full and free consent of both parties. It is a form of domestic violence and an abuse of human rights. Forced marriages are not arranged marriages. In an arranged marriage the family will take the lead in arranging the match but the couples have a choice as to whether to proceed. In a forced marriage there is no choice.
3. The Act enables a victim or a relevant third party to make an application for a Forced Marriage Protection Order. A public consultation on this has just been concluded.
4. The joint Foreign & Commonwealth Office/Home Office Forced Marriage Unit is the UK's 'one-stop shop' for developing government policy on forced marriage, coordinating outreach projects and providing support and information to those at risk. In the past two years, the Forced Marriage Unit has produced guidelines on tackling forced marriage for police, social services, health and education professionals, and is producing similar guidelines for registrars and legal professionals.
5. The Ashiana Network offers temporary safe accommodation across two schemes; its main refuge is a seven-bed shared house for women experiencing domestic violence. 31% of women are Pakistani, 7% Iranian and 6% from Turkey. These women were mostly self-referrals. 28% of all women seen in the year had been at risk of a forced marriage which was particularly an issue for a particularly high percentage of the new cases. The forced marriage was stopped in 13% of the cases. The number of forced marriages prevented was particularly high among in-depth cases dealt with by Y Stop.
6. MP3 audio file of Bridget Prentice speaking about forced marriage.