Suella Braverman attacks silence over British Pakistani child abuse gangs

LONDON: UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Sunday unveiled her plans for a new legal duty for people to report child sexual abuse, as she attacked a culture of silence around calling out British Pakistani male gangs behind such crimes.

The senior Indian-origin Cabinet minister told media outlets in a series of television interviews that the new mandatory reporting law for England will target criminals who hold cultural attitudes that are incompatible with British values.

However, they have been left unchallenged within their communities out of political correctness and out of a fear of being called racists.

"The perpetrators are groups of men, almost all British Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values," Braverman told the BBC.

"They have been left unchallenged both within their communities and by wider society, despite their activities being an open secret," she said, adding that there has been a "wilful turning of a blind eye, a failure to act and that silence has enabled this abuse".

Under her new policy, it will be made clear that anyone working with vulnerable groups and children in a safeguarding role - such as teachers and social workers - "can't get away with inaction".

"What we've seen is a practice whereby vulnerable, white, English girls, sometimes in care, sometimes who are in challenging circumstances, being pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani, men who've worked in child abuse rings or networks," she told 'Sky News'.

"We've seen institutions and state agencies, whether it's social workers, teachers, the police turn a blind eye to these signs of abuse out of political correctness, out of fear, of being called racists, out of fear, of being called bigoted," she said.

The minister pointed to several reports about the "predominance" of certain ethnic groups, adding: "I say British Pakistani males, who hold cultural values totally at odds with British values".

The details of the new measures are expected to be laid out by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday, a move welcomed by children's charities which they hope will legally compel people to report child abuse.