An increasing number of young people from minority ethnic groups are seeking help as a result of family threats or violence, according to new and as yet unpublished figures from the National Organisation of Shelters for Battered Woman and their Children (LOKK) according to Kristeligt Dagblad.

Since 2005, LOKK has offered advice to young people from ethnic minorities who experience serious conflicts with their families.

Major increase
In 2005 the organization advised 101 people who were either involved themselves in so-called honour-related issues, or who knew someone who was. That figure had grown in 2008 to 397 people.

“This is probably because more people have become aware that they can approach us for help. But the figures show that the problem continues. Despite the fact that there have been efforts to foster integration for several years, young girls in particular are still the targets of honour-related abuse,” says LOKK Secretariat Head Lene Johannesson.

Danish boyfriends
Most of the approaches to LOKK some from young ethnic minority women who have found an ethnic Danish boyfriend contrary to the will of their parents.

“But their approaches can also be because they want to be able to act like normal Danish young people. To be out in the evenings and make their own choices about education and the suchlike,” says Johannesson.

“Most of the girls who approach us have already had a verbal conflict with their parents during which threats have been made. These can be threats that they will be confined to the house or sent back to their ethnic country. Or it can be a threat of violence,” Johannesson adds.

Mediation
LOKK tries to help these girls to find out what they can do. The organisation offers, for example, mediation between the young people and their parents. The organisation can also provide practical information such as where to get help to move away from home if that becomes necessary.

“If the situation is serious, we often help the girls on to a crisis centre. That happens with quite a few of them,” Johannesson says.

Flight from forced marriage
The Dannerhuset, which is a crisis centre for battered women, takes in several young minority women each year who have been the target of family violence.

“Often this is about them refusing to enter into forced marriages. These women do not necessarily want to reject their cultural origins, but they want to be able to choose who they have a relationship with. They want to decide about their own lives themselves,” says Dannerhuset Senior Consultant Henriette Højberg.

400 honour crimes since 2006
Since 2006, the National Police Investigation Centre has registered 400 so-called honour crimes in Denmark.

These range from threats, compulsion, violence and confinement to forced marriages and forced repatriation to the family’s original home country.