Parents who force their children to marry will face jail under tough new laws being drawn up by ministers.
David Cameron is to act to halt the misery inflicted on up to 8,000 young British women every year.
The PM will make it a crime to push a son or daughter into wedlock without their full consent. He has ordered Home Office lawyers to create a new offence to be unveiled within weeks.
The action is a victory for The Sun’s Stop Child Weddings campaign, which exposed shocking cases in Britain.
We told how a girl from Yorkshire was married off by her callous parents when she had just turned FIVE — and revealed that two teenage sisters were forced to wed strangers on the same day during a trip to Pakistan.
Mr Cameron was spurred into action by Tory chairman Sayeeda Warsi, who convinced ministers that the practice — rife in parts of the Asian community — is a modern form of slavery. The Muslim peer accused governments of pussyfooting for too long on forced marriages, often used as an immigration scam.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, she declared: “It’s now time to say no. This is not acceptable. The tragedy of these stories is long term. People are trapped in loveless marriages for a long, long, long time.
“There is often no relationship and they live as strangers in the same home.
“Forced marriage is akin to slavery and it is going on in Britain today. But it is time to draw a line in the sand and say enough. This is not acceptable.”
Baroness Warsi spoke out after winning a battle with Cabinet doubters opposed to changing the law. Home Office lawyers are now working on the fine print of wide-ranging new legislation to crackdown on forced marriages.
A team of academics and religious experts signed up as advisers will have its first meeting this week. The new law could require all people marrying abroad to declare their intent first with their local registrar in Britain. All religious ceremonies would be void unless they were also entered in the civil register.
This would make it harder for parents to lure their daughters abroad and blackmail them into marriage.
Downing Street said: “This is an issue close to the Prime Minister’s heart and he is determined to act.”
Last year nearly 1,468 forced marriages were investigated by British authorities. But experts believed the true total could be more than 8,000.
Tragic
Twice-wed Baroness Warsi witnessed tragic cases as a solicitor and during election campaigns. She said: “When you go into an Asian house, you’ll have a conversation with the men, probably in the front lounge. I ask to pop in and see the women in the kitchen.
“At that point you talk to young girls who say, do you mind if I have a word? There is too much of ‘do you mind if I have a word’ still going on.” Lady Warsi told how disabled kids or youngsters with learning difficulties had been coerced into marriage to gain entry to Britain for their new partner.
She added: “The worst cases are the extreme cases where kids are drugged and taken overseas. Lots of intimidation and violence is used.
“But there are many more subtle forms of forced marriage that involve emotional pressure, deals or blackmail.
“You want to go to university? You want me to support you? You can go but you need to marry this young man first. Another one is, I’ll divorce your mother unless you marry him. Or the mother will threaten to kill herself.”
Tough
Lady Warsi admitted it had been a tough battle, with some arguing that it would be impossible to prove a marriage was forced. She said: “These arguments were raised about domestic violence and rape within marriage — until we criminalised this behaviour.
“We said society no longer finds this acceptable or turns a blind eye to it.
“This isn’t going to be an easy ride for me, especially as somebody deeply connected to Asian communities.
“I can’t see everybody in Somali, Kurdish or Iranian communities patting me on the back. But this isn’t about keeping everybody happy. It’s about doing the right thing.
“There will be challenges in relation to evidence and I am sure there will be many cases that go to court and there will be no conviction. But we can’t say that because it is going to be hard to prove, we shouldn’t do it.”
Mum-of-two Lady Warsi — born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire — is swift to draw a distinction between arranged and forced marriages. She said: “Both my marriages were arranged — the first by my parents, the second by a friend who is a cousin of my husband.
“We always want the best for our children but there is a line. A forced marriage is where there is no consent. The time has come to call a halt. This new law will change people’s lives.”
The Sun told last month how Samina Shah had her childhood stolen when she was forced to marry at the age of five.
Now in her 40s, Samina — not her real name — said: “The practice of forced marriage and the denial of human rights must stop.
“Ask those who are victims — male or female — and they will tell you that is immoral, inhumane and nothing less than a prison sentence which can be mental and physical torture.
“This law will give hope and rescue many innocent and helpless victims before they drown in a life of despair and unhappiness.”