AT least 100 children aged 12 or younger have been referred to the government’s forced marriage unit in the past five years, data shows.

Campaigners have warned that “there will be missing children” when schools reopen next week.

Freedom of information figures show that at least 100 children aged up to 12 were referred between 2021 and 2025, of whom 62 were aged 10 or under, and 27 were aged five or under.

Forcing someone to marry is a criminal offence across Britain, and the legal age of marriage was raised from 16 to 18 in England and Wales in 2023.

The Home Office said a referral does not necessarily mean a forced marriage has taken place or will take place.

Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, who fled her Derby home aged 14 to escape a forced marriage, branded the ages “deeply disturbing,” though she noted a child can be “promised to somebody from birth,” with the marriage taking place years later.

She said: “I know that when schools open in September, there will be missing children. The opportunity to identify them was pre-school holidays.

“Is somebody going to ask where they are, or are they simply just going to go off school roll? Or children will come back engaged or even married.”

She warned the true scale of forced marriage is likely higher, as many cases never reach statutory services, and said perpetrators often deflect scrutiny by invoking culture or religion.

“The tactics of perpetrators will be to use that. So they will try to put you on the back foot. ‘This is our culture. This is our religion. You’re being racist,’ to make you look the other way,” she said.

“Cultural acceptance does not mean accepting the unacceptable. This is abuse. That’s why I’ve always framed it as that, as a safe-guarding concern.”

The figures show nine referrals in 2022 involving children aged 12 or under with no overseas element, meaning the marriage was to take place entirely within Britain.

Separate Home Office data covering all age groups showed cases with no overseas element rose to 58 (14 per cent of the total) in 2025, up from 15 in 2024 and 10 in 2023.

The Department for Education said its guidance for school staff provides them with “robust information to help identify different types of abuse and harm — including abusive behaviour such as forced marriage.”