Last year the Home Office dealt with 88 cases involving reports that people in forced marriages wanted to block entry visas for their spouses
YOUNG girls are being raped after being forced into marriage by older men abroad while the Government “turns a blind eye” by handing their husbands entrance visas, an investigation has uncovered.
The revelations came after Home Office officials were contacted by women who wanted admission stopped for men they had been made to wed in countries including Pakistan and India.
But in almost half of the cases the men's visas were still approved, newspaper has revealed.
Campaigners say the worrying news confirms fears Whitehall officials are ignoring reports from the victims of abuse over fears of being labelled racist.
One victim, Rubie Marie was just 15 when she was taken to Bangladesh during the school holidays and forced to marry a 30-year-old man.
She told how she was “dressed up like a doll” while her uncle took bids for her from men in a village.
“They knew it was easy to get a visa if you marry a British girl, even if she is under-age,” she told the Times. “If you have a red passport you are worth a lot.”
Rubie, who grew up in Wales with six siblings, was taken to Bangladesh before her GCSE exams.
It's now bee claimed victims are being let down because lawyers who help their families to secure visas for their husbands behind the bride's back.
After a six-month investigation The Times revealed that in some cases men are raping girls and making them pregnant because they believe a child will help a visa application.
One teen victims also claimed she was “living like a slave” in Bradford after her husband was allowed to enter Britain.
Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the home affairs select committee, said: "Despite being warned to do more to help victims of forced marriage, it looks as though the Home Office has failed and put victims at risk."
Last year the ministry dealt with 88 cases involving reports that people in forced marriages wanted to block visas for their spouses, The Times discovered.
However, 42 of the visas were still issued and in ten more of the cases a decision has yet to be made or an appeal is being heard.
Karma Nirvana, a charity that supports victims of forced marriage, receives almost 13,000 calls a year to its helpline.
Jasvinder Sanghera, its founder and a government adviser, said: “We’re seeing this nationally. Even when officials know it’s a forced marriage, they see tradition, culture or religion and they’re reticent to deal with it. They are turning a blind eye.”
