April 12, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1429

LONDON, April 11: A new national helpline for victims of forced marriage and honour-based violence, partly-funded by the Forced Marriage Unit, was launched on Friday by Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker.

Recent estimates ranked Pakistan very high on the list of countries which have significant incidents of forced marriages involving British born Pakistani girls.

The ‘Honour Network’, run by a charity is a dedicated forced marriage and honour-based violence helpline, staffed by survivors offering emotional and practical support.

The helpline is expected to raise awareness of the issues of forced marriage and honour-based violence and is aimed at giving victims across the country the confidence to come forward.

The scale of these issues is said to remain unknown and much of the problem continues to stay underground.

The Network is designed to identify survivors to help support each other. The helpline will be manned by survivors themselves helping people take a stand against these crimes.

The joint Foreign and Commonwealth/Home Office Forced Marriage Unit was set up in 2005 and handles 5,000 enquiries and up to 400 cases per year.

The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act will be implemented in the autumn.