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The family, made up of a mother, father and two daughters, traveled to Iraq in December last year. The following month, the eldest daughter, who was then 15 years old, was going to get married.
According to the documents that Smålandsposten has read, the mother and daughters were locked up and beaten during the trip to the Middle East. But they managed to escape thanks to the help of the Växjö social services and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Since then, the whole family has returned to Sweden. But both the mother and the daughters now live at a protected address.
– We have worked so that the girls and the mother return home. When the father returned home, it was clear that this would not go well, Per Sandberg, head of labor and welfare administration, tells Smålandsposten.
According to social services, the father also planned to marry the younger of his two daughters. Today he is 14 years old.
Has increased during the pandemic
Since the family returned to Sweden, social services have applied a new law allowing a temporary travel ban to be issued for the two girls. A decision that has been confirmed by the Växjö Administrative Court, writes Smålandsposten.
The law on travel bans came into force on July 1, 2020, when penalties for honor-related offenses were toughened. Anyone who takes a child out of Sweden under a travel ban runs the risk of being imprisoned for up to two years.
– It’s good that the law has come. It gives us a space to be able to act and help the family and the children in this case, says Per Sandberg, to Smålandsposten.
Kvällposten had previously reported that the number of children taken out of Sweden has increased dramatically during the year. From June to September, 48 people were found to have been kidnapped or detained in another country, 41 of them children.
It can be forced marriage, genital mutilation or travel for educational purposes. It is not yet possible to say exactly why the increase is due, but it is clear that there has been a strong increase.
– During the crown period, some parents kept their children at home without care. Others have blamed the school crown for getting a child out of the country. The child may be told to visit a grandmother who is ill, when it is actually a honeymoon, Christina Malmqvist, an expert on the National Competition Team, previously told Kvällsposten.
