Great Britain
Abuse: Pakistanis targeted by Sunak government
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman in Rochdale, near Manchester. photo
© Phil Noble/PA Wire/dpa
Many perpetrators in two abuse scandals in England were of Pakistani origin. Now the conservative government is explicitly targeting men with this background. Critics are appalled.
In the fight against the sexual exploitation of girls and women, the conservative British government will in future focus more on the ethnic background of the suspects. “For too long political correctness has kept us from weeding out heinous criminals who exploit children and young women,” said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Interior Minister Suella Braverman specifically targeted men from Pakistan as perpetrators. “The government’s focus on British-Pakistani men is nothing more than state racism,” said Cambridge University sociologist Ali Meghji.
The question of ethnic background is not in itself unusual in Britain – and is routinely asked in surveys, but also on government websites. Now data collected by the police is also to be used by a new task force that is to take up the fight against the “grooming gangs”, as organized abusers are called. “We will stop at nothing to root out these dangerous gangs,” said the prime minister, who has Indian roots.
Home Secretary accuses Labor of failure
Sunak and Braverman made a demonstrative visit to the town of Rochdale on Monday. The place near Manchester is in Great Britain – like Rotherham in northern England – a synonym for organized abuse. Between 2008 and 2010, several men from Pakistan had abused dozens of mostly white girls and forced them into prostitution. According to conservatives, the fact that the perpetrators remained unmolested for a long time is due to fear of discrimination allegations. The reason that tips from social workers, local politicians or even the police were ignored “was cultural sensitivity and political correctness,” Sunak now said.
Above all, Braverman, whose ancestors come from India and Mauritius, did not mince his words. There is a “predominance of certain ethnic groups – and I say: British-Pakistani men – whose cultural values are completely at odds with British values,” the conservative hardliner said on Sunday. These men would view women “in a degrading and illegitimate way.” The minister claimed that the importance of ethnic background was being ignored, particularly in regions where the opposition Social Democrat party Labor governed. In 2024 there will be elections in Great Britain, and their Tories are behind in the polls.
Sunak’s government is pursuing a strident anti-migration course
Critics accused Braverman of using her language to incite hatred of minorities. It is not the first time that the interior minister has been approached for her language. Just a few weeks ago, ex-soccer star Gary Lineker tweeted that the government’s rhetoric was “not dissimilar” to that of 1930s Germany. This was directed thinly at Braverman, who had described the rising number of irregular migrants as an “invasion”.
Even now the criticism is considerable. Sociologist Meghji referred to the government’s plans to deport unwanted people as quickly as possible, regardless of their circumstances. “They will use the myth of brown sex offenders to gain support for their anti-migration and anti-refugee policies,” he told the German Press Agency.
The child protection organization National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) also warned that there is an increased risk of “blind spots” due to the focus on a certain type of offender. It’s important to remember that sex offenders “don’t have just one background,” said NSPCC chief Peter Wanless.
Does the new focus ignore reality?
Opposition leader and Labor leader Keir Starmer said the ethnic background of suspects should not be an obstacle to investigations. However, he emphasized that this does not play a role in the “overwhelming majority” of sexual abuse cases. Meghji also said: “Government data shows that so-called grooming gangs are mainly led by white men.”
The Home Department-commissioned studies also found that most sex offenders convicted of organized child molestation are white men. There is no evidence that grooming gangs are more Asian or black. A government spokesman said Monday that there simply hasn’t been enough data to draw any clear conclusions.