Sometimes, any conversation on child abuse needs to first address the individual and community-based silence surrounding the issue. On Sunday, UK's Indian-origin Home Secretary Suella Braveman not just attacked silence over British Pakistani child abuse gangs but also revealed her plans for a new legal duty that would make it imperative for people to report child sexual abuse. Braverman condemned the culture of silence in strong words and moved onto the need for the law.
The new policy also ensures that those working with vulnerable groups and children in a safeguarding role, such as teachers and social workers, "can't get away with inaction." She not just attacked the culture of silence around calling out British Pakistani male gangs behind acts of child abuse, but also spoke about the law in a series of television interviews, adding that such criminals have been left unchallenged out of political correctness and fear of false racism. "The perpetrators are groups of men, almost all British Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values," she said in an interview to BBC. The new mandatory reporting law for England will target criminals whose attitudes and cultural values are incompatible with British values.
Mincing no words, Braverman further said despite their activities being an, "open secret," the perpetrators have been left unchallenged. "They have been left unchallenged both within their communities and by wider society, despite their activities being an open secret. There has been a wilful turn of blind eye, a failure to act and that silence has enabled this abuse."
Citing several reports about the predominance of certain ethnic groups, she blamed not just communities, but also blamed institutional inaction behind the continued abuse. "We've seen institutions and state agencies, whether it's social workers, the teachers, the police turn a blind eye to these signs of abuse." In an interview to Sky News, she said, "What we've seen is a practice whereby vulnerable, white, English girls, sometimes in care, sometimes who are in challenging circumstances, being pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani men who've worked in child abuse rings or networks."
The move was welcomed by charities and organisations in children's rights. The details of the new law will be laid out by British PM Rishi Sunak on Monday. Earlier this year, Braverman also announced a new Illegal Migration Bill, as per which the illegal migrants arriving in the UK illegally on small boats would be "removed swiftly."
