Police and authorities 'afraid to act against honour crimes in case they are called racist', claims report

Teachers, police and councils are afraid to take action against so-called honour crimes for fear of being accused of racism, it is claimed.

Women are also being betrayed by community figures who believe those who break traditional taboos deserve to be punished, the report found.

Researchers say taxi drivers, police and government workers of Asian origin are returning women to the domestic abuse they want to escape.

The report by the Centre for Social Cohesion think-tank voices the concerns of activists who say they are seeing more women fleeing "honour-based" violence.

But lack of funding means shelters have been forced to turn victims away.

The Crown Prosecution Service says about 12 women are victims of honour killings in the UK each year.

The researchers fear the real figure is much higher.

The study found that honour crimes are being carried out by third and fourth generation immigrants.

It also says there is evidence that Asian policemen and councillors try to block the activities of women's groups.

"The Government is still not taking honour crime seriously," said James Brandon, one of the report's authors.

"Until this happens, the ideas of honour which perpetuate this violence will continue to be passed from generation to generation."

The report says women have been attacked for forming "inappropriate" relationships, wanting to go to university or listening to Western music.

It found that "political correctness" was preventing bodies from tackling crimes which exist in the country's Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities.

The authors said families withdraw teenage daughters from school because they fear men will be unwilling to marry them if they are educated.

Many men brought up here want "freshies" - women "uncontaminated" by ideas of independence.

Rahni Binjie of the Roshni Asian Women's Aid, a refuge in Nottingham, said: "We've had women who have disappeared from the education system. We don't know if they've been taken abroad or killed or anything."

Activists say there are particular problems with taxi firms who return women fleeing from abuse.

Jasvinder Sanghera, of the Karma Nirvana refuge in Derby, said: "We just can't trust them. This can be a matter of life and death for these girls."

Honour cases include that of Surjit Kaur Athwal, a Sikh lured to India and killed on the orders of her husband and mother-in-law.

Bachan Athwal and her son Sukhdave, 43, ordered the honour 'killing' of the 27-year-old Customs officer at Heathrow after she had an affair and started divorce proceedings. They were jailed in

The young Sikh woman vanished after going to a family wedding in India in December 1998. It is believed the grandmother's brother Darshan strangled her in the Punjab before throwing her in a river. Her body has never been found.