Coronavirus (COVID-19): domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls during Phases 1, 2 and 3 of Scotland's route map (22 May to 11 August 2020)

14. Honour based violence

During phase 3, two specialist BME domestic abuse support organisations highlighted a decrease in contact from women experiencing honour-based violence and/or enforced servitude from their extended family. This related to existing clients and new referrals. One service reported that, prior to lockdown, it received a volume of calls from women residing with in-laws who were experiencing enforced servitude, and this contact had almost entirely stopped. The service believed women were unable to make contact due to stricter controls on their freedoms caused by more family members being within the house rather than at work (due to redundancy, furlough and/or the increases in people working from home) and less time away from their perpetrators. The other service reported a decrease in referrals relating to Forced Genital Mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage. Service managers communicated significant concern that lockdown and the subsequent Phases had allowed increased opportunities for perpetrators of honour-based violence – particularly FGM – to remain undetected.