West Midlands Police is to join forces with partners to launch a task force to highlight the problems associated with forced marriage and honour based violence inWalsall.
Officers from Walsall’s Public Protection Unit (PPU) together withWalsall’s Domestic Violence Forum and other local agencies are creating a steering group, which aims to raise awareness of the problem of forced marriages and help victims of honour based violence (HBV) across the Borough.
Officers have been invited onto Ambur Radio, a community radio station based inWalsall, to promote the work they are doing. They will be joined by members of AAINA, a local Asian women’s group for a number of hour long shows, which start on December 22.
Ambur Radio broadcasts to over one million listeners across Walsall, Wolverhampton, Sandwell andDudleyin a number of ethnic languages.
DS Trudy Runham from the PPU atWalsallis responsible for setting up the Forced Marriage and Honour Based Violence Steering Group, involving police and partners working together.
She said: “The group will be launched in January 2012 and is the first of its kind in the Walsall Borough. Local police and partners will be working closely to prevent forced marriage and HBV from taking place across the Borough by helping more people to understand what it is, the damage it causes and the help available to victims.”
“We need to challenge the practice before it takes place, through working with communities, schools and victims to overcome the culture of acceptance.”
The group also aims to ensure all agencies and support services know how to help victims of forced marriage and HBV and strengthen safeguards to ensure support for victims.
DS Runham added: “It is a sadly proven fact that rapes, domestic abuse, honour killings and suicides can result from forced marriages where family “honour” is at the root of these destructive unions. We want to work as a team with our local partners to increase awareness and offer help to potential victims.”
