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Girls: Marriage

Answer

The UK is a world leader in tackling forced marriage. It is child abuse, domestic abuse and a form of violence against women and men and a serious abuse of human rights.

The government does not hold data on the number of girls under the legal age of marriage who have been brought back to the UK. However, the government does hold information on the number of cases for which the forced marriage unit has provided advice and support. This information is in the table below. It is important to note that this statistic does not represent the number of forced marriage cases, but the number of calls and emails initiating contact with the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) about a victim or potential victim. Forced marriage cases are not necessarily reported to the FMU; through the unit’s outreach work, social workers and the police are becoming more skilled at dealing with forced marriage cases and so may not need to involve the unit. Where a case is being appropriately dealt with there is no obligation to inform the FMU.

To provide more information on the nature of the assistance provided in all these cases, including those which have involved repatriation, would involve a disproportionate cost.

Forced marriage unit statistics Year Number of cases in which the Forced Marriage Unit provided advice or support related to a possible forced marriage 2009 1682 2010 1735 2011 1468 2012 1485 2013 1302 2014 figures are currently being compiled.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL3909

Session

2014-15

Subjects

Forced marriage Marriage

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk