Police in Pakistan have arrested a suspect who is alleged to have imprisoned his wife and five children in a cramped home for over a decade.
Sylvie Yasmina, a 54‑year‑old French national, says the man beat her and her children daily, imprisoning them in a small room and denying them contact with the outside world since they moved from Australia in 2014.
In Bara, a remote town of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a son slipped away to file a police report, prompting an armed raid that uncovered the family in a state of distress, bruises covering bodies.
The victims were escorted to a women’s shelter in Peshawar where they are receiving care and planning to return to France, where the husband’s whereabouts remain unknown.
The husband, who allegedly resided illegally in Australia when the couple first met, was not identified in the arrest but is charged with abuse and unlawful confinement.
The incident highlights the continuing danger of family violence in border regions and the urgent need for protective mechanisms for migrant families, as well as international collaboration in preventing abuse and facilitating safe re‑establishment.
