Experts say crime is woefully under-reported, as Guardian research shows large scale of domestic and sexual servitude.<\/p>\n
More than 3,500 reports of forced marriage were made to police over a three-year period, a Guardian investigation has found, as charities warned that there were thousands more victims living in conditions of modern slavery in homes across the UK.<\/p>\n
Data shared exclusively with the Guardian revealed 3,546 reports between 2014 and 2016. But experts warn that the figures, collected by the\u00a0Iranian and Kurdish Women\u2019s Rights Organisation<\/a>\u00a0under the Freedom of Information Act, are just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n Over the same three-year period, one national helpline run by another NGO received 22,030 calls from individuals or agencies concerned about a forced marriage. In 2017, the NGO\u00a0Karma Nirvana<\/a>\u00a0received a further 8,870 calls, including more than 200 from or about children under 15, and gave advice regarding eight new clients under 10.<\/p>\n The new figures reveal the shocking extent of forced marriage in Britain \u2013 a crime that experts say should be investigated and prosecuted as a form of modern slavery.<\/p>\n They point to the fact that a guilty verdict last week against a mother who trafficked her daughter to be married in Pakistan was the first of its kind in the country despite the large number of reported offences.<\/p>\n Legal experts and campaigners say modern slavery legislation could lead to an increase in convictions for a crime that is notoriously hard to prosecute because victims are reluctant to testify against family members.<\/p>\n Last week\u2019s landmark conviction resulted in a mother from Birmingham being\u00a0jailed for four-and-a-half years<\/a>\u00a0for duping her 17-year-old daughter into travelling abroad and forcing her into marriage.<\/p>\n