Before the pandemic, the UK forced marriage unit dealt with an average of 1350 cases per year. This dropped in 2020 to just over 750. Relatedly, calls to the national helpline about forced marriage dropped significantly as restrictions increased in various “lockdowns” and the introduction of more stringent “Tier” restrictions across England. In this talk, Dr McCabe will explore the reasons there might be for these drops, and whether this represents a decrease in cases, or is a sign that people in need of help were less able to access it. Dr McCabe leads the work on forced marriage at the Rights Lab, a University of Nottingham Beacon of Research Excellence, and has been leading an ESRC-funded grant investigating the impact of Covid-19 on forced marriage in the UK since October 2020. This is being conducted in partnership with Karma Nirvana, who run the national helpline for forced marriage and honour based abuse.

This event is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2021 and was made possible thanks to funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

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