Forced marriages should be made a crime to send out a clear signal that it is "intolerable", a Tory Muslim peer said yesterday.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, shadow minister for community cohesion and social action, dismissed arguments against making forced marriages a crime, saying that they were the same that were used against banning domestic violence.
But she told peers: "We did make domestic violence a crime and we put down a benchmark that this is intolerable.
"Is it not now time to make forced marriages a criminal offence to say very clearly that this will not be tolerated and people will be prosecuted for committing this offence?"
Home Office minister Lord West of Spithead replied: "The difficulty is that these things happen in families. We have taken a lot of advice and talked to many people.
"There is a feeling that the crime would go even further underground because people generally do not want to put their families through this. Read more ...
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, shadow minister for community cohesion and social action, dismissed arguments against making forced marriages a crime, saying that they were the same that were used against banning domestic violence.
But she told peers: "We did make domestic violence a crime and we put down a benchmark that this is intolerable.
"Is it not now time to make forced marriages a criminal offence to say very clearly that this will not be tolerated and people will be prosecuted for committing this offence?"
Home Office minister Lord West of Spithead replied: "The difficulty is that these things happen in families. We have taken a lot of advice and talked to many people.
"There is a feeling that the crime would go even further underground because people generally do not want to put their families through this. Read more ...
Source: Daily Mail
H/T: Dhimmi Watch
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