Forced Marriage of Children in the UK

Now a warning that the story I'm about to cover may be very distressing to some

viewers and listeners because it's feared that children under the age of

five, five, have been forced into marriage in this

country, and at least 100 children aged 12

or younger

have been referred to the government's Forced Marriage Unit in the past five

years. Now, the government's Forced Marriage Unit gave

what it calls

tailored assistance to 406 cases last year, and

of those, 87, 87 involved children

aged 15 and under. And a total of 40% of all cases

involved under 18s. And when it comes to the focus country,

which the Home Office says are the countries to

which the risk of forced marriage

relates, as you can see on your screens now,

the data is

irrefutable. Pakistan is way out on top with

41% of cases, and Bangladesh is on

9%, Afghanistan on 7%, UK only there

on 14%. But when you look into that, it transpires

these are people from cu- cultures like Pakistan, but

the event itself, if you like, is happening on British

soil. Something's going desperately, desperately wrong.

This isn't legal, and it isn't working. What on earth can we do about it?