Woman who married illegal migrant rescued after being taken to Pakistan, locked up and beaten

A French woman who married an illegal migrant has been rescued after being taken to Pakistan before allegedly being locked up and beaten daily for more than a decade.

Sylvie Yasmina, 54, married a Pakistani man who was living illegally in Australia in 2003, before moving her family to the South Asian country in 2014.

After being taken to live in the rural village of Bara, the French woman claims she was subjected to more than 12 years of hell before finally being rescued by the authorities.

Ms Yasmina told Pakistani officers she was forced to live in an "extremely dilapidated room" with her five children.

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The 54-year-old described her illegal migrant husband as a "very violent" man who attacked her and the children "on a daily basis".

She also said she had spent more than a decade cut off from any communication from the outside world.

The family were finally rescued from their ordeal after one of her sons managed to escape and filed a report to the file.

Officers later raided the squalid property, where they are said to have discovered the mother and her children covered in bruises and "effectively imprisoned".

"According to the woman... She was not allowed to meet anyone, their two older children had missed their studies, while the three younger children were born in Pakistan and never enrolled in school," a senior Pakistani officer told the BBC.

In her statement to the police, Ms Yasmina wrote: "We were deprived [of our] freedom, my husband didn't take care of us the way he should as a husband and the father of my children.

"He beat us and put pressure on our lives on a daily basis.

"I felt that my future was already ruined, the future of the children would also be ruined."

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The 54-year-old told Pakistani media outlets: "I arrived in Bara in 2014 and I went through very difficult circumstances with my own family."

She later praised the authorities "who rescued us and took us out of a very difficult situation".

"I am grateful for the help, for our lives... It was very, very difficult, we went through really bad times since 2014 so I'm so grateful that you guys helped us.

'I am deeply grateful to all the officers, thank you so much. They made us feel so comfortable with no pressure.

'I'm so grateful for my life and my children's life. Thank you so much."

Pakistani police confirmed that the woman, along with her five children, has since been moved to a women's shelter in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Ms Yasmina is now planning to take her family back to France with her to restart their lives.

The identity of the mother-of-five's alleged abuser has not yet been disclosed by the authorities.

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