Home Office data also recorded nine referrals in 2022 involving children aged 12 or younger where there was no overseas element and the potential or actual forced marriage was entirely within the UK.
At least 100 children aged 12 or younger were referred to the UK government’s Forced Marriage Unit over suspected or potential forced marriages between 2021 and 2025, with 27 of those children aged five or younger.
The figures, obtained through a freedom of information request, show that 62 of the children referred were aged 10 or below. Some data was withheld by the Home Office because the small numbers could potentially identify individuals, reports the Daily Mail.
Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, who fled her home in Derby after facing the prospect of a forced marriage at age 14, called the ages of some of the children “deeply disturbing.” Sanghera also warned that children could be missing from school when classes resume following the summer break.
“I know that when schools open in September, there will be missing children,” she said. “The opportunity to identify them was pre-school holidays. Is somebody going to ask where they are, or are they simply just going to go off school roll? Or children will come back engaged or even married.”