British ministers are stepping up the fight against so-called 'honour' crime and forced marriages. Detectives say official statistics are 'merely the tip of the iceberg' of this phenomenon.

Up to 17,000 women in Britain are being subjected to "honour" related violence, including murder, every year, according to police chiefs.

And official figures on forced marriages are the tip of the iceberg, says the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

It warns that the number of girls falling victim to forced marriages, kidnappings, sexual assaults, beatings and even murder by relatives intent on upholding the "honour" of their family is up to 35 times higher than official figures suggest.

The crisis, with children as young as 11 having been sent abroad to be married, has prompted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to call on British consular staff in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan to take more action to identify and help British citizens believed to be the victims of forced marriages in recent years.

The Home Office is drawing up an action plan to tackle honour-based violence which aims to improve the response of police and other agencies and ensure that victims are encouraged to come forward with the knowledge that they will receive the help and support they need. And a Civil Protection Bill coming into effect later this year will give courts greater guidance on dealing with forced marriages.

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The number of women who have become victims of forced marriages in the UK has been drastically underestimated, according to a report published today. Government figures had previously suggested there were about 300 forced marriages a year but today's study, which focuses on Luton, suggests the true figure could be up to 4,000.

This report is living proof that the government's figures on forced marriage are woefully inadequate, said Margaret Moran, a member of the Commons home affairs select committee, which is investigating forced marriages and domestic violence.

Women who become victims of forced marriage often have no idea who their husbands will be and have no rights once they are married.

The study, carried out by Dr Nazia Khanum, found there were 300 approaches each year to Luton-based support services from people worried about forced marriages. Moran said: This report is the only study in the whole of the UK that uses research at a local level, presenting cases as they occur in a community ... The results are startling.

She said the report could still be underestimating the scale of the problem. The victims of forced marriages will generally not go to statutory agencies, like the police or the government's forced marriage unit, fearing the size and impersonality of these national organisations will lead to their exposure.

In today's report Khanum says there is a wall of silence around forced marriages and called for the authorities to take it more seriously. Forced marriage should be recognised as a form of bullying and domestic abuse and tackled in accordance with the normal professional standards and guidance for such cases, she said.

Khanum said teachers and others who work with girls and young women should look out for signs of family bullying or pressure: After reading the report you realise that forced marriage is not simply a problem in the Asian community; it cuts across all kinds of races and cultures. It is a problem that affects the whole of society.

The select committee is expected to report back within the next two months.

A Spanish court has sentenced a Mauritanian to 17 years in prison after she forced her 14 year old daughter to marry an older man and have sex with him, sparking protests from Mauritanians in southern Spain.

Hawa Mint Cheik El Bou fainted outside a courtroom in the southern city of Cadiz after being told of the sentence against her. A crowd of fellow immigrants carried signs calling for their customs to be respected.

She was convicted of being party to rape, coercion and making threats. Her husband was sentenced to 18 months' jail and the man who married their daughter received 13 years and six months.

Proceedings started when Hawa's Spanish-born daughter, then 14, told authorities that her parents had taken her to Mauritania and forced her to marry a 40-year-old man and have sex with him before they all returned to Spain. In Spain, she was forced to sleep with him again, she said.

The girl's parents have not yet been jailed while appeals proceed, but the other man has been in custody since 2007.

The president of an association of Mauritanian immigrants said Spain should respect Mauritanian and Islamic customs but also that people in Spain should obey Spanish law.

An annual list of countries named as the worst violators of religious freedom expanded to include two new countries – Iraq and Nigeria.

This year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended to the Obama administration a total of 13 countries that it should designate as countries of particular concern (CPCs).

Iraq was added in December because of the ongoing, severe abuses against minorities and the government’s tolerance of the violence, particularly against Iraq’s smallest and most vulnerable religious minorities, including Chaldo Assyrians and other Christian groups.

Nigeria, meanwhile, which has been on the commission’s watch list for seven years, was recommended to be a CPC because of evidence found by USCIRF during a recent trip to the country of the government’s toleration of systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom and beliefs.

Thousands of people have been killed, displaced or somehow affected by ongoing sectarian violence in Nigeria, reported Commissioner Leonard Leo. The Nigerian government has also allowed destruction of churches and mosques to go with impunity.

Commissioner Elizabeth Prodromou, who reported on Pakistan, highlighted how the Pakistani government does not provide adequate protection to religious minorities, and how perpetrators of religious violence are seldom brought to justice. She also noted how anti-blasphemy laws have been abused and can be used by extremists against minorities because allegations can be made without evidence. And Prodromou noted how women and girls in Taliban-controlled areas are denied equal rights and education. Since 2002, USCIRF has recommended for the State Department to designate Pakistan as a CPC. But the State Department has not followed the commission’s recommendation.

Included in this year’s report, which covers the period from May 2008 through April, are: Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

On the commission’s Watch List, meanwhile, are Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Venezuela.

A wicked and cruel mother has been jailed for three years after forcing her two young daughters to marry their cousins in Pakistan.

The Muslim woman hoodwinked the pair, aged 14 and 15, into thinking they were going on a family holiday.

But when the schoolgirls arrived they discovered preparations were being made for them to marry their first cousins in a joint ceremony.

Yesterday, in what is being seen as a landmark case, a judge condemned the mother's actions and claimed she had been wholly misguided.

She was convicted of child sex offences and attempting to pervert the course of justice as there is no current law which bans forced marriage.

Judge Clement Goldstone QC told the woman: those who choose to live in this country and who, like you, are British subjects, must not abandon our laws in the practice of those beliefs and that culture. If they do, they will face the consequences.

Manchester Crown Court heard the two sisters were forced to marry their cousins in July 2007. After the ceremony the mother told her elder daughter that unless she consumated the marriage, she would tie her to the bed, blindfold her and strip her and watch to make sure she had sex with her new husband.

She was arrested when her daughters confided in their teachers in February last year, after returning to the UK. Both sisters were taken into care. None of those involved in the case can be identified.

As many as 8,000 cases of forced marriage were reported in England last year, according to a Government report.

The study published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families claims that the overwhelming majority of victims are teenage girls from Pakistan or Bangladesh.

They are often coerced into getting married to preserve family honour rather than allow them to form relationships with boys from other cultures or religions, it is claimed, or to help others move to Britain.

The report says some of the young brides are forced to marry abroad after being taken on a supposed holiday then having their passports confiscated, while others are drugged or subjected to violence or threats if they protest.

Many forced marriages remain hidden because those involved are taken out of school, fear reporting relatives to the authorities or cannot obtain help overseas.

The report calculates that, in 2008, between 5,275 and 7,750 cases were reported to the authorities in England.

The Foreign Office's dedicated unit dealt with 420 cases last year – almost treble the 152 in 2005 – and has now issued guidance to health workers and teachers on how to spot potential victims.

Chris Bryant, a junior minister in the department, said: Nobody should be forced into marriage against their will or without their free and open consent. It is depressing that this practise does still continue, for whatever reason, and as a Government we are determined to do everything we can to put a stop to it and to protect the vulnerable. There is no culture in which this is acceptable in a modern world.

An NHS doctor from east London who was held hostage and forced into marriage has spoken for the first time about her four-month ordeal, during which she feared for her life.

Dr Humayra Abedin, who was freed from her vows on the orders of a Bangladeshi court soon after The Independent on Sunday highlighted her plight, described the humiliation and pain she suffered at the hands of her parents, some members of her extended family and nurses and doctors in a private psychiatric hospital in Bangladesh last year.

In an exclusive interview with the IoS, Dr Abedin told of the moment she was abducted: My face was covered with a piece of cloth by men who told me they were policemen, before they carried me out into an ambulance which was parked outside the house. They held my arms and legs, carried me like a prisoner, while my parents stood in the background.

She was driven, kicking and screaming, to a private hospital, on the request of her family. During the journey, she was held down and gagged by three people as they tried to stop her shouting.

This was the first time I thought, 'this is it, I am dying', said Dr Abedin: I begged them to stop. And so began the nightmare.

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There has been a sharp increase in the number of men seeking help with forced marriages, the government has revealed.

The rise of over 65% in calls from men to the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) last year is so significant that experts now believe far more British men are being forced into wedlock than had been thought.

The calls we receive are the tip of the iceberg, said a spokesman for the FMU: It now seems likely that men account for one in five of all the forced marriages that take place to British citizens.

Professionals and communities can be very intolerant towards men being forced into marriage, even if they have learnt to be sympathetic to women in the same situation, said the spokesman for the FMU: It can be hard to persuade people to believe it even happens.

But the threats to these young men are very real. We received a call recently from a young man taken to Pakistan. He didn't know he was going to be married, and when he refused, he was locked in a room. Every day, his father came in to beat him – we're talking broken legs and sexual abuse.

Last year, the FMU gave advice and support to 1,682 men and women regarding suspected forced marriage. More than 220 calls and emails involved male victims, up from 134 in 2008. As of the end of May this year, there have been 88 calls from men for help.

The majority of calls come from men linked to Pakistan, followed by India and Bangladesh. But the FMU has also received calls from British men with links to the Middle East, Africa and eastern Europe.

Men report being forced into marriage because they are gay or bisexual, or because their families suspect that they are. But it can also be a result of family commitments to relatives abroad or their own expectations, securing visas or an attempt to control their son's behaviour or protect a family's reputation. This kind of abuse must not be tolerated, said Lynne Featherstone, equalities minister.

Forced marriages are to become a criminal offence under plans proposed by Theresa May.

The Home Secretary will launch a consultation on creating a specific offence of forcing someone into a marriage against their will.

In 2010, the Forced Marriage Unit dealt with 1,735 possible cases of forced marriage, although the number of cases is thought to be significantly under-reported.

David Cameron has called forced marriage little more than slavery.