Forced marriage victims in Austria also experience massive psychological and physical violence, an interdisciplinary research revealed.

The phenomenon of forced marriage also occurs in Austria, and not only in the case of couples who were married abroad. Many are coerced into marriage in Austria.

The existing extent of this serious human rights violations in Austria is examined for the first time by an interdisciplinary group. After eighteen months of intensive work the team presented a report this month in Vienna, with the full study to be published in early July, the kath.net Catholic news portal writes.

International studies estimate that at least 22 million people across the world are affected by forced marriage, with nine million of the victims being children.

The project titled FORMA (Forced Marriage) sought to collect data for Austria. The research involved experts from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Fundamental and Human Rights, the University of Vienna, a non-profit organisation called Orient Express and the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Vienna. Caritas legal advisor Maryam Alemi led the research project, which was commissioned by the Interior Ministry and the Federal Chancellery’s Department for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. The project was financially supported by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).

In order not to rely solely on crime statistics, files and court decisions, the team conducted qualitative interviews with experts from non-governmental organisations, authorities and international organizations, as well as with those affected.

The experts analysed 370 decisions by the Federal Administrative Court and evaluated 129 files from the Orient Express, a women’s counselling centre, which works with women struggling with family and partnership problems, abuse and domestic violence and has long been familiar with the phenomenon of forced marriage.

In 70 per cent of the cases examined by the Orient Express, people were threatened with or affected by forced marriage. In all cases, those affected experienced psychological violence, and physical violence in 90 per cent of the cases,

project leader Maryam Alemi said.

Presenting the research findings, the expert described the case of a 17-year-old victim whose parents coerced her to get engaged after they had found out about a secret relationship. The young woman suffered massive physical and psychological violence from her fiance and her own family. With the help of her boyfriend and the child and youth welfare service, she finally managed to escape to a shelter just a few weeks before the planned wedding.

In addition to the study results, the researchers also formulated a number of recommendations.

The recommendations included better monitoring and data collection mechanisms, and more education and awareness-raising. The team also stressed the importance of enhanced cooperation between victim protection organisations and schools.

The experts also recommended raising the minimum age for marriage to 18 and providing more efficient counselling for people planning to get married.

Identifying and protecting those affected is difficult, as they often hesitate to seek help or even report a crime due to a lack of awareness or feeling of shame, Alemi explained, adding that it is therefore important for victim support organisations to cooperate across sectors, for example, with institutions engaged in youth and social work, law enforcement and the judiciary, public authorities and the healthcare system. Low-threshold contact points for multilingual psychosocial counselling should also be expanded.