FORCED MARRIAGE CHARITY “FREEDOM” SEND OPEN LETTER TO MICHAEL GOVE URGING FIGURES TO BE MADE AVAILABLE ON
HOW MANY CHILDREN EXPECTED BACK AT SCHOOL AFTER THE SUMMER HOLIDAY FAIL TO RETURN
4th October, 2013: Freedom Charity is urging the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, to collate and make publicly available figures on how many children due to return to school after the summer holiday, fail to appear.
The summer holiday is the key time when young people are taken abroad to be forced into marriage yet Freedom Charity have been unable to find out (via a Freedom of Information request) how many empty chairs there are in classrooms around the country at the beginning of the Autumn Term.
Please find, below, Freedom Charity’s letter to Mr Gove:
The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP,
Secretary of State for Education.
3rd October 2013
Dear Mr Gove,
We would be grateful if you could address as a matter of urgency the fact that it appears to be impossible to find out how many children expected back at school after the summer holiday (2013) have failed to return.
Freedom Charity work to protect the lives of children and young people by raising awareness of forced marriage in the UK. The summer holiday is a key time when children are taken abroad, often thinking they will be going to a relative’s wedding, only to find it is their own. These children will be kept abroad against their will and subjected to rape and other forms of physical and mental abuse.
