Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the average cost is of repatriating a victim of forced marriage stranded outside the UK; and who is responsible for paying that cost.

The UK is regarded as a world leader in its work to tackle forced marriage. The Prime Minister hosted the UK’s first Girl Summit in July 2014, to build on current efforts and rally a global movement to end early and forced marriage, and FGM in a generation. The UK Government made commitments to act domestically and internationally, including promises to improve the police response, increase support available to those affected, and strengthen community-led prevention. Our work to repatriate victims is a key element of our work to end forced marriage.

Before paying for the repatriation of a victim of forced marriage back to the UK, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office takes every step to ensure there are no other means of obtaining funds from relatives or friends who may be willing to transfer money or purchase a ticket back to the UK. Only in exceptional circumstances and after other means of obtaining the funds have been exhausted will a discretionary loan be made available, which must be repaid at a later date.

Where it has been demonstrated that all possible avenues of funding have been exhausted and there is a clear inability to enter into a loan agreement (normally due to a victim being underage or not having sufficient mental capacity to sign an agreement), the FCO can provide limited financial support. Since April 2013, the average cost of repatriation in these cases has been £744.00.