{"id":1587,"date":"2018-10-10T15:45:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T14:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1587"},"modified":"2018-10-10T15:45:53","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T14:45:53","slug":"campaigners-argue-forced-marriage-is-a-crime-not-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/campaigners-argue-forced-marriage-is-a-crime-not-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"CAMPAIGNERS ARGUE: \u2018FORCED MARRIAGE IS A CRIME, NOT CULTURE\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>COMMUNITIES should help the police by reporting suspicions related to forced marriage, a<br \/>\ncampaigner has urged, as she revealed she felt UK politicians were failing victims.<\/p>\n<p>Jasvinder Sanghera, the founder of Karma Nirvana which supports victim of honour-based<br \/>\nabuse, also warned more children would suffer because of the government\u2019s failures.<\/p>\n<p>Sanghera, who was disowned by her family after she refused to participate in a forced marriage, told\u00a0<em>Eastern Eye<\/em>\u00a0on Tuesday (9) that communities could help agencies, especially the police, by reporting any suspicions they had about forced marriages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is very difficult to police, safeguard and investigate cases without the support of those aware of victims,\u201d she said. \u201cI understand it takes immense courage to report abuses as a third party, but you can anonymously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the home secretary Sajid Javid announced\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.easterneye.biz\/sajid-javid-vows-forced-marriage-abuse-help\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new measures to combat forced marriage.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>They include the refusal of spousal entry visas to the UK where there are signs that a marriage has been forced and helping public service professionals identify and support victims. Javid made the announcement after months of criticism against the Home Office, which has been accused of accepting visa applications from men who had forcibly married teenagers abroad.<\/p>\n<p>In response to this, Prem praised the government\u2019s latest actions to tackle the problem.<\/p>\n<p>She is hopeful the latest proposals will make a difference to victims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are small steps, but it is a positive move forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Noreen Riaz, a project coordinator from forced marriage charity Halo Project, told\u00a0<em>Eastern Eye<\/em>\u00a0she shared similar sentiments as Prem. She believes change is happening, but it is a slow process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government has made the necessary legislative changes to tackle forced marriages in the UK,\u201d Riaz said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, I agree more needs to be done to ensure change in practice and in the culture that it is prevalent in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVictims of forced marriage are at greater risk of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. We need to ensure professionals and agencies are aware of these risks and have a better understanding and training in regard to the barriers faced by victims of forced marriages,\u201d<br \/>\nRiaz said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COMMUNITIES should help the police by reporting suspicions related to forced marriage, a campaigner has urged, as she revealed she felt UK politicians were failing victims. Jasvinder Sanghera, the founder of Karma Nirvana which supports victim of honour-based abuse, also warned more children would suffer because of the government\u2019s failures. Sanghera, who was disowned by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forced-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1588,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587\/revisions\/1588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}