Forced marriage cases reported in Britain jump to record high – Reuters

LONDON, May 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The number of calls to a specialist British unit tackling forced marriage leapt to a record high last year, with nearly one in five involving a child aged under 16, data released on Friday showed.

The Forced Marriage Unit dealt with 1,764 cases in 2018, a jump of 47% on the year previously, with more than 40% of cases related to Pakistan but reports involving dozens of countries ranging from Somalia to Iraq and Romania and in Britain itself.

Officials and campaigners hailed the rise as a sign of increased awareness over the issue, but charity Freedom said the number still represented only a fraction of those affected.

Read more here.