Rise in teens enticed to Somalia for marriage

The number of British Somali teenagers lured to their parents’ homeland for forced marriages has doubled, new Home Office figures show. The teenagers are often brought to Somalia on the pretence of a holiday and then kept in detention centres before being forced into marriages, the Guardian reported last night.

The centres promote themselves as “re-education” schools for Somali cultural values, but staff routinely subject young people to physical, sexual and mental abuse, it said.

Forced marriage cases handled by Home Office involving Somali children rose to 91 in 2017.