A recent Guardian investigation has found that more than 3,500 reports of forced marriage were made to police over a three year period in the UK.  In 2017, the NGO, Karma Nirvana received a further 8,870 calls, including more than 200 from or about children under 15.  Over the same three year period, one national helpline run by another NGO received 22,030 calls from individuals or agencies  ( see Rotarian Action Group against Slavery http://www.ragas.online 4 September 2018 Issue No 86). See also the Editorial by Mark Little -President and Founder of RAGAS  RC Norwich St Edmund, England- in which he writes: “Forced marriages are now rightly regarded as a form of modern slavery. According to the charity Karma Nirvana the number of UK cases of forced marriage soared by 40% at the start of the school holidays this year. The charity revealed that it was receiving reports of cases at a rate of two a day in July, more than double the average of 25 seen in the first four months of the year, with 44 cases reported. Jasvinder Sanghera, who is the founder of the forced marriage victim support charity Karman Nirvana, says: Even if teachers notice their female students are missing from the classroom, the “alarm bell will not necessarily ring because the first person to be alerted are the parents, who will often say they are being educated abroad. The parents are the perpetrators of the crime of forced marriage”. So if you decide to add your support to others’ on this issue, click on  Freedom United link,  and join the fight against forced child marriage. https://www.freedomunited.org/