Figures raise forced marriage up govt agenda
The government has admitted more needs to be done to reduce forced marriages in Britain.
A Home Office spokesperson made the admission after separate figures showed the problem may be greater than previously thought.
Labour backbencher Margaret Moran set up a study by Dr Nazia Khanum which looked at the number of forced marriages in and around her Luton constituency.
She says the figures, multiplied upwards to include the whole country, suggest the number of women forced into marriage each year could be as high as 4,000.
“This is the only study in the while of the UK that uses research at a local level, presenting cases as they occur in a community… the results are startling,” Ms Moran commented.
Dr Khanum’s findings come as home affairs committee Keith Vaz revealed government figures showed 33 children had gone missing who may have been forced into marriage.
Speaking on the Today programme, he said 33 of the initial 205 youngsters have “gone off the school rolls”.
The figures were for a forthcoming home affairs report and could not be confirmed by the committee’s clerk, who said they would not be officially published until the report is released.
Mr Vaz said: “We’re not saying that they all end up in forced marriages.
“What we are saying is we have to follow the children, we have to make sure that we know that they are safe, and that is a duty.”
A Home Office spokesperson said the government had made progress on the issue but admitted “we need to do more”.
She said the Foreign Office was making progress on rescuing and repatriating victims and said the Home Office was taking specific action to address honour-based violence.
Commenting on today’s figures, the spokesperson added: “We recognise the scale of forced marriages is unknown – much of the problem remains underground.”
