Hundreds of little girls are forced into marriage every year in the UK. Reported by The Independent.
According to the Office of National Statistics, in 2017, 183 people got married with parental consent, 140 of them are little girls. From 2006 to 2016, about 3.3 thousand marriages with children were concluded in England and Wales, most of them girls.
According to charities that are working on this problem, children are being married off because British laws do not provide them with adequate protection. While this is often seen as a problem in developing countries, little girls are widely married across Britain.
This often happens under the guise of religious marriages – they, in turn, are allowed by law for people of all ages. Since religious marriages are not registered in Britain, their exact number is difficult to track. In addition, the law allows girls 16-17 years old to marry “with the permission of their parents.” At the same time, human rights activists argue that often parents forcibly give up their children.
In February 2019, more than 100 cases of forced child marriage were investigated in Australia. Girls were married off even at the age of six or seven. It was noted that it is mainly about followers of Islam, including migrants from Muslim countries.