Girls Taken Abroad for Forced Marriages Urged to Hide Spoons in Underwear to Alert Airport Security
British girls being taken abroad for forced marriages are being urged to hide spoons under their clothes in order to alert authorities to their plight.
As Britain puts airport staff on alert to spot potential victims, one campaigning group says the trick has saved some youngsters from coerced unions in South Asia.
The concealed cutlery sets off the metal detector at security control in Britain. Girls - and sometimes boys - can then be taken away from their parents to be searched, which gives them a last chance to seek help from airport staff.
The British school summer holidays, now well under way, mark a peak in reports of young people - typically girls aged 15 and 16 - being taken abroad on ‘holiday’, for marriage without consent, the government says.The bleep at airport security may be the last chance they get to escape a union to someone they have never met in a country they have never seen.
The spoon trick is the brainchild of the Karma Nirvana charity, which supports victims and survivors of forced marriage and honour-based abuse.
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