Summit to highlight issue of forced marriage

An international conference with the aim of discussing the main ways to deal with arranged marriage is benefiting from the UK's experience with the issue.

The two-day conference is being hosted in London and the government's Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is on hand to give advice about how to react to complaints of forced marriages and how to spot those people who are too afraid to ask for help.

Begun yesterday and running until the end of today (Thursday), the event is hearing about how the FMU has helped various people in Italy, Ireland and France and how 65 per cent of its cases involve Pakistan while 25 per cent involve Bangladesh as well as other countries such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

FMU head Peter Abbott commented that while arranged marriage is viewed as something that is mainly associated with Muslim communities, it is also something that occurs in many cultures which put a strong emphasis on village and family ties.

He said: "The overwhelming common denominator is those cultures and societies where the family is incredibly strong, where family and the village is the centre of life and really plays a large part."

The FMU deals with around 300 cases of arranged marriage every year.

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