Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: British Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s said on Sunday that Pakistan-origin men’s ‘grooming gangs’ abuse White English girls and children.
Indian-origin Braverman, known for her uncompromising stand on illegal migrants, came down heavily on Pakistani-origin men whom she alleged harmed White English girls in Britain. Some British Pakistanis were running child abuse networks in the UK and the authorities and civil society were turning a blind eye because of ‘political correctness,’ the media quoted her as saying.
“(We see) a practice whereby vulnerable White English girls – sometimes in care, sometimes in challenging circumstances – being pursued, raped, drugged, and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani men, who work in child abuse rings or networks,” Braverman told British channel Sky News.
“We have seen institutions, and state agencies, social workers, teachers, and police turn a blind eye to these signs of abuse out of political correctness, out of fear being called racist, out of fear being called bigoted. And, as a result, thousands of children have had their childhoods robbed and devastated.”
Braverman said many of these perpetrators ran wild, and authorities must track them down without fear or favor relentlessly and bring them to justice.
A ‘grooming gang’ in the UK refers to a group of people who sexually exploit and abuse vulnerable children, often through grooming, coercion, and intimidation. These gangs typically operate in communities with a high proportion of vulnerable children, such as those in care or from disadvantaged backgrounds, the reports said.
“Grooming gangs are a stain on our country,” she said.
“Last summer Rishi Sunak promised that if he became Prime Minister, he would make eradicating grooming gangs and delivering justice for their victims, a personal priority. We are now making good on that promise,” she tweeted.
Her remarks triggered reactions, with some agreeing to the need for strengthening the criminal justice system while others disputing it.
Vikram Sood, the former head of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence agency, said child abuse in the UK had come to light in 1997. Until 2014, about 1,400 cases of brutal rape of non-Muslim White girls, mostly by men of Pakistani origin, were recorded. “Complaints were brushed off as emanating from Islamophobes,” he tweeted.
Those complaining about child abuse had to seek police protection and police invariably failed to act fearing accusations of racism and damaging inter-community relations.
Shoaib M Khan, a human rights lawyer, in a tweet, however, said a 2020 Home Office study found group-based CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation) offenders were most commonly White.
When asked about Braverman’s observations about British Pakistani gangs when there was not enough evidence to suggest that child abuse was committed by one community, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government had made independent inquiries into the incidents and it was clear that when victims or whistleblowers raised these concerns, they were ignored.
“And often the reasons were put down to people wanting to be not culturally insensitive or because of political correctness – that is not right,” he told Sky News.
On Monday, he said his government has begun cracking down on ‘grooming gangs’ as political correctness should never get in the way of keeping women and young girls safe.
A day before, Braverman launched a mandatory reporting duty for those working or volunteering with children to report child sexual abuse. It was a key recommendation made by the independent inquiry report to crack down on child sexual abuse and address the systemic under-reporting of this crime, the home office said.