Can I prevent going abroad to a forced marriage?

The main choices available to you are to:

• Marry as your parents wish, although this is not a recommendation as there are alternative ways to deal with the situation.

• Remain with your family and try to resolve the situation. It is important that you make your feelings on the subject clear to your parents. Try to explain that you do not want to be married to whom they have in mind.
• Leave the family, if you are old enough and self-sufficient. However, this is not always a practical solution for everyone.
• Seek advice from agencies that deal with forced marriages and seek legal protection.

Once you have discussed this with your parents and if they are still forcing you to go abroad to be married, try to find out as many details as possible about where you are staying and pass these details onto someone you can trust. Contact the Forced Marriage Unit and let them know what is planned, they can provide support and advice.

However, once you are out of the UK suitable assistance may be limited. It is therefore important that you find out the details of the British High Commission or Embassy within the country that you are travelling, before you travel. The details of these can be found from the Forced Marriage Unit or the FCO website, click here

It is also a sensible precaution to have some extra money if possible, in case of the need to make telephone calls, to pay for transport or anything else that may help the situation.

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