By Faye Brown, November 14, 2019
Parents of autistic children are paying religious pastors to exorcise their children under the belief their disability is a sign of the devil, a child safety expert has warned.
Debbie Ariyo, the CEO of UK based charity AFRUCA, said disabled children are vulnerable to horrific forms of witchcraft abuse in certain communities in the UK.
She said common forms of torment include being starved or having chili powder put in the eyes or genitals to rid the body of the perceived spirit.
She spoke to Metro.co.uk in light of new figures which show witchcraft and black magic are increasing factors in the abuse of children in the UK.
Data published by the Department for Education found child protection cases based on faith or belief have risen by a third in the last year, with social workers dealing with the equivalent of 38 cases per week.
Ms Ariyo said it was often children who were vulnerable or ‘different’ that were accused of witchcraft.
‘The thing that really concerns me is that most cases are to do with children on the autistic spectrum’ she told Metro.co.uk ‘
Many of them are accused of witchcraft. This link is a big problem.
‘Parents think they are possessed so they take them to a church, to be exorcised to take the devil out of them.
‘Faith leaders know they are lying, they charge the parents for [exorcism]. They are taking money from desperate families who are looking to solve a problem that is not solvable.’
The Local Government Association said the rise in cases was evidence that social workers are getting better at identifying often hidden and culturally complex factors in abuse.
But there was also alarm that the numbers are rising so long after the high profile deaths of children such as Victoria Climbié, eight, who was killed by her guardian as a result of ritual abuse in 2000, and Khyra Ishaq, seven, who was starved to death in 2008 in Birmingham by her mother.
In 2015, a mother and her lover were jailed for killing her eight-year-old daughter Ayesha Ali in east London, after beating her to rid her of ‘evil spirits’.
Ms Ariyo said a lack of prevention and awareness raising has resulted in authorities being slow to tackle the issue.
She warned charities like hers, which represents African communities in the UK and around the globe, have had their funding cut, meaning there are few support channels for victims of witchcraft abuse.
She said: ‘This is not a new phenomenon. We have been doing this (AFRUCA) since 2001 and we are still talking about this in 2019.
‘Unfortunately there are very few organisations offering support on this issue.
‘I don’t think there are organisations that are funded to do this kind of work.’
Lancashire, Bradford and Leeds recorded the highest number of cases of witchcraft abuse in 2018/19, but social workers across the country logged increasing numbers of incidents, the research found.
Ms Ariyo stressed it wasn’t only a problem within African communities, but said she had dealt with many victims through her outreach work with AFRUCA, which stands for Africans Unite Against Child Abuse.
Describing abuse children accused of witchcraft commonly go through she said: ‘Disabilities, bed wetting, bad behavior – anything that makes a child different is seen as a risk factor.
‘Parents are not educated on the issue so if a child is not seen as normal, they attribute it to witchcraft. Parents will take them to a church or mosque and ask the leader to do something in the name of sorcery.
‘This used to lead to physical abuse. Now we are more commonly seeing children being fasted. They will have no food or drink for days to make the body uncomfortable. Chill powder will be put in the eyes or private parts.
‘This is not just African communities, it happens in many cultures.’
The government data also showed the number of children having or being at risk of female genital mutilation has reached a record high – with 1,000 such cases in 2018/19 – a 6% rise in cases from the previous year.
The National FGM Centre, a joint initiative between the LGA and Barnardo’s, says both sets of figures are hugely worrying and probably don’t reflect the true prevalence of this ‘hidden’ crime.
They said the figures reflect the pressure on children’s services, with social workers starting new ‘episode of need’ cases for more than 1,000 children each day.
As the UK heads to the polls for the December 12 election, the campaign groups called on the next government to ensure councils have the funding needed to continue to to keep children safe from harm and abuse.
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Source: Metro UK
