Girls escape forced marriage by setting off airport metal detectors with spoons hidden in their underwear

Teenage girls who suspect they are being taken abroad to be forced into marriage, have been given a new tip to escape their plight.

The girls hide spoons or other metal items in their clothing to set off an alarm, giving them a last chance to alert authorities or miss the flight.
Jasvinder Sanghhera, founder of charity Karma Nirvana, was disowned by her family aged 16 when she refused to marry a man in India.

The charity gets around 600 calls a month, with spokesperson Natasha Rattu revealing:
‘When youngsters ring, if they don’t know exactly when it may happen, or if it’s going to happen, we advise them to put a spoon in their underwear.'

There have been 400 reported cases of forced marriage in the last 3 months alone

‘When they go through security, it will highlight this object in a private area and, if 16 or over, they will be taken to a safe space where they have that one last opportunity to disclose they’re being forced to marry.
‘We’ve had people ring and say that it’s helped them and got them out of a dangerous situation. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to do with your family around you – but they won’t be aware you have done it. It’s a safe way.’

'I was raped by my husband and this abuse continued for about eight and half years of my life'

This comes as the Foreign Office’s Forced Marriage Unit revealed it has had 400 reported cases in the last three months alone.
The summer holidays are notorious red zone for school girls going missing as there is minimum risk of a child’s absence being noticed.
The Forced Marriage unit deal with around 1500 cases a year- the youngest victim they have come across was aged 2, the oldest 71.

Girls are often disowned or even killed by their families if they refuse to marry

One victim told a UK radio station that she was forced into marriage aged 13 and pregnant by 14.
‘I did not know I was going to get forced into a marriage until a week before the marriage actually occurred. I had never seen the guy before. I was in the middle of nowhere and I did not know where I was,’ she admitted.
Another victim- whose identity has to remain protected by police after her dad threatened to kill her if she escaped, described her horrific experience.
‘I was shipped off with a total stranger. That night I was raped by my husband and this abuse continued for about eight and half years of my life,’ she said. She later escaped.