Cameron threatens negligent public workers with jail

UK premier David Cameron has threatened to jail those who fail to protect children from abuse.

Outlining plans to tackle child sexual exploitation at a meeting in his official London residence, the Prime Minister said teachers, social workers and councilors in England and Wales who work with kids could face up to five years in prison if they turn a blind eye to child abuse.

The Prime Minister’s comments come in the wake of horrific stories of neglect in places such as Oxfordshire and Rotherham. A newly published report has revealed that as many as 373 teenage girls and children were targeted for sex by gangs of men in Oxfordshire during the last 16 years. In Rotherham, it is estimated that at least 1,400 children were sexually abused over a number of years.

For decades, experts have warned about the scale of the tragedy, and criticized different British governments for their inaction all through those years. The head of research at the Islamic Human Rights Commission, Arzu Merali, believes Cameron’s proposals have a political color to them:

“A number of observers have pointed out that a lot of issues that have been flagged up now are really being flagged up because we are in the election year.”

The United Kingdom is expected to hold the general elections on 7 May 2015 to elect the 56th Parliament.

Cameron criticized police and social workers’ idleness and called for an end to a "walking on by” culture. He also upgraded the status of child abuse to a national threat. This means police will now treat such abuse in a similar way to serious and organized crime, with police forces, chief constables and police and crime commissioners having a duty to collaborate in order to protect children.

Merali says the plans are also part of a general climate of racism and Islamophobia in the United Kingdom:

“Because there have been some cases, where, some of the perpetrators have been of a Muslim Heritage or a Muslim. And this has been used by the government to create more fear, more misunderstanding and to tap into the counter climate of anti-Muslim hatred by claiming that it is a particular community who is responsible for this. This is why phrases like cultural change are used. I would argue that we do need cultural change.”

The new plans also involve imposing unlimited fines to individuals and organizations that have let children down. It also includes creation of a national helpline to enable professionals to report bad practice. 

HH/PHX

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