Home Office data has revealed that at least 100 children aged 12 or under have been referred to the UK's forced marriage unit over the past five years, including 27 children aged five or younger. Campaigner Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, herself a survivor who fled a forced marriage at 14, described the figures as "deeply disturbing" and warned that vulnerable children could go "missing" or fail to return to school when the new term begins in September, as the summer holidays offer opportunities for such marriages to take place unnoticed.

The figures, obtained through a freedom of information request and covering 2021 to 2025, showed 62 of the referred children were aged 10 or under. Forcing someone into marriage is a criminal offence across the UK, and the legal marriage age in England and Wales was raised from 16 to 18 in 2023. Dame Jasvinder, who runs a charity supporting victims, said the true scale is likely higher, warned that perpetrators sometimes deflect scrutiny by invoking accusations of racism, and stressed that forced marriage should be treated purely as a safeguarding issue regardless of cultural context.