The number of forced marriages has increased by 60 per cent in the last six years, with 14 per cent of the girls under the age of 15.

The worsening trend in the statistics was highlighted by former victim Hannah Serroukh, who was chosen for wedlock by her stepfather when she was 15 years old. She is currently a member of the Politeia Foundation and is fighting to prevent forced marriages.

In Spain, the number of forced marriages has grown by 60 percent since 2015, with only a third of girls older than 18 at the time of the wedding.

Girls under the age of 15 are involved in 14 per cent of forced marriages, the foundation reports.

Alerta: en los últimos seis años los matrimonios forzosos han aumentado en España un 60% https://t.co/Ure6hobR1K

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The situation is even more severe in the most affected regions. In Catalonia, for example, the number of forced marriages has doubled since 2017.

Hannah Serroukh says that it is the extremist imams of mosques who give their blessings to these marriages and the marital union is often only registered in the girls’ country of birth until they turn 18 years of age. „In some instances, couples presented themselves in public as uncle and niece despite having already been wed by an imam.”

In the category of forced marriages, the proportion of child marriages saw a dramatic increase after a modification in legislation. In 2015, the Spanish government raised the minimum legal age for marriage from 14 to 16. Following the move, authorities examined many previously tied marriages and found that they qualified as child marriages and were thus, invalid.