Forced and arranged marriages a real problem in Switzerland

I don't know about the methodology involved in obtaining the data, but if it bears up under scrutiny, then something is rotten in Switzerland:

Thousands of women trapped in forced marriages in Switzerland are suffering severe mental and physical abuse, say the authors of the first Swiss study into the practice.

The charity Surgir (Rise), which carried out the survey, is now calling on the government to draw up a national strategy to aid victims.

Announcing the findings in Geneva on Wednesday, Jacqueline Thibault, the organisation's president, described the scale of the problem as "enormous".

She added that many victims were too afraid to escape forced marriages for fear of reprisals, including so-called "honour killings".

"The study is going to be presented to the authorities and then they will have to decide what action to take," Thibault told swissinfo. "Right now there is no strategy in Switzerland concerning forced marriages." [...]

Thibault said awareness was growing slowly and she drew some comfort from a recent court case in which a 26-year-old Pakistani man was jailed for 18 years after battering his wife to death with a hammer.

That's a pretty long sentence for Switzerland's judicial system.

The 21-year-old woman, who had lived in Switzerland since the age of three and who held a Swiss passport, had asked for a divorce after only four months of their arranged marriage.

Thibault said the sentence sent out a strong message that this type of "honour crime" would not be tolerated.

According to the study, those forced into marriage tend to come from eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, North and sub-Saharan Africa. [...]

The study found that in extreme cases rape was used as a means of pressuring women into marriage. Almost all victims said they had been threatened with death.

Those who try to break free face a number of obstacles: language barrier, severing of family ties, lack of money and not knowing where to turn to. Surgir says there is only one centre specialising in forced marriages in Switzerland – the Mädchenhaus in Zurich. It has room for just seven women. [...]

The Federal Justice Office said the cabinet was preparing a report to be presented to parliament on existing criminal and civil sanctions against forced or arranged marriages involving Swiss residents.