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Updated 20:25
THE WOMAN WHO instigated the rescue of three women from domestic servitude in London last month said today they are doing “remarkably well” considering the “absolute trauma they were under”.
Founder of the Freedom Charity, Aneeta Prem has spent her career working around issues of forced marriage and dishonour-based violence.
An interview on BBC News of her discussing cases of children going missing from school and the charity’s education programme was the catalyst for the women to seek help.
“The ladies concerned had seen me on various news channels talking about forced marriage,” Prem told Morning Ireland today.
“One of the things that came up at the end of those interviews was the fact there is a charity – Freedom – and they memorised the phone number.”
The 57-year-old Irish woman made the phone call to the 24-hour helpline last month and those who took her information were “sufficiently disturbed” to take the case forward.
“From the initial call to the helpline, we took it incredibly seriously and believed them,” continued Prem. “From that moment on, it was starting negotiations in a very sensitive way to make sure they were given all the help and support they needed in order to mount the rescue.”
The Human Trafficking Unit of the Metropolitan Police was brought into the case on 21 October and a probe began to establish the women’s exact locations.
Negotiations – led by the charity – eventually concluded with the woman agreeing to meet Prem and a number of detectives at a location on Friday, 25 October. She was accompanied by the 30-year-old British woman. Once they had met with Scotland Yard, they returned to the Lambeth property to rescue the third woman – a 67-year-old Malaysian.
Prem says that she won the trust of the victims and she has seen them a number of times over the past four weeks.
“Considering the absolute trauma that they were under, they are doing remarkably well. But it is going to be a slow process. They are going to have to rebuild their lives and that’s not going to be easy as they have come out with absolutely nothing at all.
“We’ll make sure they are in a place of safety. They need all the help and support to rebuild their lives.”
She also believes it was the name of her charity and its basic messages about silence not being an open which encouraged the women to reach out.
Prem urged people to be more vigilant about what is happening in their neighbourhoods.
“I think people have to come forward, you need to know who your neighbours are, you need to ask difficult, awkward questions. I’m really proud of Freedom Charity – we know we’ve saved lives.”
The two suspects in the case – a man and a woman who are both aged 67 and said to be non-British – have been released on bail until January. Gardaí have not yet been asked to assist on the case.
First published 09:39.
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I can’t believe they let these two out on bail until after Christmas.
Every person is entitled to bail, no matter what crime they have committed
“Every person is entitled to bail, no matter what crime they have committed”
Thank God you’re not a judge
Patrick,
Bail is refused in many cases. Educate yourself before talking shite again.
Not so, Patrick. Where the accused is considered a danger to the public, ie, in cases like murder, rape or kidnapping or armed robbery.
Com stop talking shite everyone isint entitled to bail get ur facts right
I agree ,
Just wondering was the irish womans family looking for her, did the gardi have her logged as a missing person?
I was thinking the same
Maybe they fell out or lost contact, she could have had personal problems, lots of things could have happened.
A (perfectly normal) uncle of mine disappeared for 12 years, everyone assumed he had died with no ID on him.
Hope these criminals really enjoy their last days locked up in gaol
Teresa I can’t believe 3 people (for the want of a better word) disagreed with you, goes to show there are evil people around.
It’s now 8 Teresa 5 more morons
This artictle has had 11,000 views so far. Isn’t it possible 8 people hit the red thumb button by accident if reading on a mobile phone?
I hope the UK press have learned their lesson and don’t go printing pictures or identifying the women without being requested to by cops etc
This is a very strange story.How could anyone keep 3 women locked up for 30 years & no one seemed to notice anything strange.very bizarre story.
Out on bail?????????????
Everyone is entited to bail, no matter what crime they have committed
Brevik?
Maybe there’s more out there, keep up the good work.
Think this lady is getting a bit excited: “we know the freedom charity has saved lives”. There is talk of these women having been enclaved for there decades. I suspect the type of slavery we’re talking about isn’t quite the ancient roman image of people being kept in cages and being whipped into working harder. More likely the women were working for years in a household, institutionalised there and did not make an effort to leave though I’m sure if they really had the confidences or desire to do so, they could have done.
AlanHarte do you have any idea how trauma works? When someone is enslaved, imprisoned, their spirit broken – physical punishments and probably forms of drawn out torture to ensure their obedience!!!! They couldn’t just get up ans walk out whenever they felt like it – when someone is enslaved, it’s not just a physical prison.
Doesn’t make it any less acceptable. Just try to imagine not being your own person because of another.
All of these monsters property and possessions should be taken and divided between the victims.
Alan, look up a term called Stockholm Syndrome. These woman had limited “freedom” although I wouldn’t call it that, they were enslaved, working for a household. When you say didn’t make an effort to leave, there’s a 30 year old girl in there, that has known nothing else and I have a suspicion she may be the daughter of one of the other women. It will take many many years for the two older women to rebuild their lives and much longer for the younger woman and not one of them has a possession or means to survive by themselves, it may be one institution to another I fear.
They also deal with forced marriages and dishonor based violence, there’s no doubt they have saved lives.
You are one absolute idiot if you had a brain cell it would die of loneliness. You have no idea the psychological trauma captivity and terror can instil in people
Modern day London, not Mogadishu.
How about Dublin, or Galway, maybe in another few years.
There have been a few suggestions that the couple involved are Irish, I really hope not!
And their elision is relevant why?
They say the couple who captured the three people is Muslim
And Hitler was a Christian Patrick. What’s your point?
The claim is sometimes made that Hitler was a Christian – a Roman Catholic until the day he died. In fact, Hitler rejected Christianity.
The book Hitler’s Secret Conversations 1941-1944 published by Farrar, Straus and Young, Inc.first edition, 1953, contains definitive proof of Hitler’s real views.
The book was published in Britain under the title, _Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-1944, which title was used for the Oxford University Press paperback edition in the United States.
All of these are quotes from Adolf Hitler:
Night of 11th-12th July, 1941:
National Socialism and religion cannot exist together…. The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity’s illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity…. Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things. (p 6 & 7)
14th October, 1941, midday:
The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death…. When understanding of the universe has become widespread… Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity…. Christianity has reached the peak of absurdity…. And that’s why someday its structure will collapse…. …the only way to get rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little…. Christianity the liar…. We’ll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State. (p 49-52)
I don’t know why that’s relevant, but they sound like overheard quotes.
This is something he wrote:
“”Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”"
I’m not an expert on the subject, but I’ve read numerous times that he believed in the Christian God. He may not have been a practicing Catholic but has written about his faith.
“”My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.”"
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942)
….strange story, these women were not physically detained or imprisoned, if that is the case, and they had no other impediments to leaving is there an offence?
Keep taking the tablets Stephen
It’s a fair question Patrick, thirty years, not locked in or chained, what was to stop them from leaving? There are a lot of unanswered questions.
*religion
http://www.spirituallysmart.com/nazi.html
“I learned much from the Order of the Jesuits”, said Hitler…
“Until now, there has never been anything more grandiose, on the earth, than the hierarchical organization of the Catholic Church.
I transferred much of this organization into my own party…
I am going to let you in on a secret… I am founding an Order… In my “Burgs” of the Order, we will raise up a youth which will make the world tremble… Hitler then stopped, saying that he couldn’t say any more..”
Those youths are bondholders!
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