LONDON: British schools were urged to act to protect girls at risk of being taken abroad for marriage during the summer holidays after government figures released on Thursday showed nearly a third of reports of possible forced marriage involved children.

The warning came a day after a mother went on trial in Birmingham accused of tricking her teenage daughter into travelling to Pakistan to marry a much older man to whom she was allegedly betrothed when she was 13.

Campaigners said the case could lead to the country’s first conviction for forced marriage.

Data released by the government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) on Thursday showed it received reports of 1,196 possible cases last year.

Although the figure was 19 per cent down on 2016, it said the drop did not represent a decrease in the prevalence of forced marriage which remained a “hidden crime”.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2018