Pakistani police have arrested a man accused of holding his wife, a French national, and their five children captive in their home for more than a decade. The family was allegedly subjected to daily physical and mental abuse.
Sylvie Yasmina, the wife, told local police that her husband was "very violent" and had "effectively imprisoned" them since their move to Pakistan from Australia in 2014. According to Yasmina, she had no contact with the outside world during this period. Their two older children reportedly missed their schooling, and the three younger children, born in Pakistan, never attended school.
Police discovered Yasmina and her children in a confined and deteriorated room in Bara, a remote area within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Authorities reported that Yasmina and her children displayed bruises. They have since been transferred to a women's shelter in Peshawar and intend to return to France.
Yasmina, 54, stated in her police report that her husband, a Pakistani national, deprived them of their freedom. "I felt that my future was already ruined, the future of the children would also be ruined," she wrote. She also alleged that her husband did not provide adequate care as a husband and father and subjected them to daily beatings.
Authorities have not released the identity of Yasmina's husband. Records indicate he was residing in Australia illegally when he met Yasmina. The couple married in 2003 and lived in Australia until 2014 before relocating to Pakistan with their two eldest children.