Forced Marriage

Forced marriage is a form of domestic abuse and, where it affects children,

child abuse. The Forced Marriage Unit – a joint initiative of the FCO and the
Home Office – leads the Government’s work to tackle forced marriage,
helping British nationals who are in difficulty abroad and supporting victims of
any nationality in the UK.

In 2010, the unit provided help and support in 1,735 cases of potential or
actual forced marriage. In many of these cases the unit helped people access
appropriate support from other agencies. The unit, working with our
embassies and high commissions, directly helped victims to escape forced
marriages in 240 cases. Often this involved visiting victims overseas and, if
requested, helping them make arrangements to return to the UK. One 17-
year-old girl was rescued, with help from the local authorities, from a remote
area in South Asia where she was being held against her will, abused and
forced into marriage. Our consular team in the High Commission arranged
safe accommodation for her and a flight back to the UK, where she was met
by social services and the police. With assistance she has taken out a Forced
Marriage Protection Order and started to rebuild her life. We also helped 229
people who had been forced into marriage and were subsequently being
coerced into sponsoring a visa for their spouse.

People at risk of forced marriage may only have one chance to ask for help,
which means that all practitioners need to be able to spot the warning signs
and know what to do. We launched an interactive e-learning package in
2010, strengthening the multi-agency response to forced marriage by
enabling a wide range of frontline practitioners to access training. We also
launched guidelines on forced marriage and learning disabilities, developed in
conjunction with leading learning disability NGOs the Ann Craft Trust and the
Judith Trust, to help protect some of the most vulnerable people in our
society.
During 2010 we continued to work closely with NGO partners. We funded six
organisations to deliver projects, including safe places to stay for male victims
and couples escaping the threat of forced marriage; community-based peer
education; and an education programme for schools. We also piloted a
community engagement programme with communities that experience forced
marriage, to highlight the problem and seek their help in changing behaviours
and perceptions that lead to abuse. Our High Commission in Islamabad also
began a programme of outreach work to highlight the problem of forced
marriage in Pakistan. We will review these pilot projects in order to ensure
that our work is as effective as possible.