Excerpt:
British children in Asian communities face huge pressure to marry according to customs that can be abusive and illegal under British law.
Some may have had their husbands or wives chosen for them from birth or when they were very young. They can be expected to marry cousins, with partners chosen to benefit the wider family and maintain so-called honour in their communities.
This is a worldwide problem. However, the majority of cases recorded by the government’s forced-marriage unit involve South Asian communities, with 37 per cent linked to Pakistan, 11 per cent linked to Bangladesh and 7 per cent linked to India. About 30 per cent involve victims below the age of 18.