Around 40% of all cases of forced marriages of British citizens, including men and women, are linked to Pakistan. Both countries are expected to work together and bring a stop to this practice. British-Pakistanis top the list of forced marriages in United Kingdom. The results of the recent study were brought up by the United Kingdom’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) Co-Chairperson Niamh Connolly, while addressing a gathering of journalists at the British High Commission on Friday. “Forced marriage cases involving UK citizens, consist of people between the age bracket of 18 to 25 years. Up to 80 per cent of the people affected were women, while 20 per cent were men,” Connolly informed. In regard to the Pakistani cases, she said that a majority of them come from the Mirpur city of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
Pakistan has an average of 70 to 90 cases of forced marriages of British citizens every year. In fact, in 2017, British schools were urged to protect girls who could be at risk of being taken abroad for marriage, after government figures released on Thursday showed nearly a third of reports of possible forced marriage involved children. “In Britain today there are children in our classrooms who are either engaged … at risk of forced marriage or have been forced into marriage,” said Charity founder Jasvinder Sanghera “Families will use the summer holidays as an opportunity to take their kids abroad to enter into marriages or engagements – so what are we doing to ensure schools are engaged?” Forced marriage is illegal under British law, even if carried out abroad.