There has been a sharp increase in the number of men seeking help with forced marriages, the government has revealed. The rise of over 65% in calls from men to the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) last year is so significant that experts now believe far more British men are being forced into wedlock than had been thought.
"The calls we receive are the tip of the iceberg," said a spokesman for the FMU. "It now seems likely that men account for one in five of all the forced marriages that take place to British citizens."
Men at risk are usually aged from 15 to 24, but the FMU recently received a call to their helpline from a 62-year-old widower whose family was trying to force him to marry a 35-year-old woman because they no longer wanted to care for him. Cases also include an underaged man taken to Pakistan and forcibly engaged to his five-year-old cousin.
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