UK forced marriage victims charged repatriation costs

LONDON, Jan 02 (AFP): Britain is charging young women rescued from forced marriages abroad for the cost of their repatriation, The Times newspaper revealed Wednesday.

Four British women who were liberated from a punishment institution in Somalia were each charged £740 ($940, 820 euros), the daily said. Victims are reportedly told they have to fund their flight back to Britain, basic food and shelter costs.

Those who are aged over 18 and cannot pay have to sign emergency loan agreements with the Foreign Office.

The ministry helped bring back 55 forced marriage victims in 2016 and 27 in 2017.

The four young women who were found in a "correctional school" in Somalia had been sent to the religious institution by their families and reported being chained to the walls and whipped with hosepipes.

Some had their legs shackled, spent days locked in a small box, were burned with hot sticks and forced to sit in their own urine unless they accepted a forced marriage, The Times said.

The Foreign Office and the Home Office interior ministry run the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), which from 2009 to 2017 gave advice or support to nearly 12,800 people.