No police prosecutions in the battle against forced marriages West Midlands suffers second highest number of victims in country
WEST Midlands Police admitted it had not secured a single conviction to protect victims of forced marriage – because most victims do not want to see their parents prosecuted.
The West Midlands suffers the second highest number of forced marriage victims in the country, according to the Government’s Forced Marriage Unit.
Victims are usually forced into marriage by family members and are often tricked into going abroad, physically threatened or emotionally blackmailed.
Despite the power to prosecute families over the practice, the force revealed it had applied for four civil protection orders instead and supported a further 24 successful cases brought by partner agencies.
The issue was raised at this week’s Strategic Police and Crime Board by member Waheed Saleem who described the practice as “appalling” and queried what was being done to secure criminal convictions.
But senior officers admitted the force had not secured a single criminal conviction despite receiving at least one complaint every week.
From the 50 calls received about forced marriage up to November last year, 23 were recorded as crimes.
The 2014 Anti-social Behaviour Act made the practice a criminal offence, with prison sentences of up seven years.
Perpetrators convicted of breaching a Forced Marriage Protection Order obtained through the family courts, can also be jailed for up to five years.
Deputy Chief Constable Louisa Rolfe told the meeting that most victims in the region were South Asian women aged between 18 and 24.
She said most investigations had not resulted in criminal justice because victims had not been willing to support a prosecution of their own parents.
Deputy Chief Constable Rolfe added: “There have been no prosecutions in the West Midlands and the only prosecution nationally has been in South Wales.
“Most of the victims do not want their parents to be prosecuted and much of our work has been around safeguarding and support.
“This does not mean that we would not prosecute cases, even with reluctant victims.
“We have established protocols with reluctant victims, but our challenge with some of these cases is they are very complex. Our best evidence is often the victims themselves. We have been using civil powers and we were the first force in the country to secure a Female Genital Mutilation and Forced Marriage Protection order at the same time.” Birmingham Community Safety Partnership figures from 2012-13 showed half of all forced marriages in Birmingham occurred in just six city counc i l wa rd s : Bordesley G reen , Springfield, Washwood Heath, Sparkbrook, Nechells and Lozells and East Handsworth.
Forced marriage is most common in the UK among ethnic minority communities, particularly Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian. The practice is also carried out in families from the Middle and Far East, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe, as well as among some travelling communities.
Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said: “The way to tackle hidden crimes is to raise awareness and bring them out into the open. Victims need to have confidence that crimes will be investigated fully and that they will be protected.”
This does not mean that we would not prosecute cases, even with reluctant victims Deputy Chief Constable Louisa Rolfe