'THERE’s no excuse to say it’s a cultural thing’ was the message resonating from a conference based around raising awareness of honour-based violence in ethnic minority communities.

At a time of the year when young girls are the most vulnerable to honour-based violence, particularly forced marriage, a conference organised by Slough-based Jeena Internatinonal, brought together the government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), a law firm specialising in forced marriage, the UK Border Force, Reading YMCA, Thames Valley Police (TVP) and schools.

The summer holidays can be a particularly dangerous time with patterns emerging of girls thinking they are being taken on holiday abroad only to discover they are being forced in to marriage once they get there.

Arranged by Rani Bilkhu, the founder of Jeena International, the conference on Thursday last week was the first of its kind on these issues, held in conjunction with its #safersummercampaign, offering an opportunity to exchange information and build relationships among key agencies and Slough schools.

First off at the event was Marie Jenkinson from the FMU – a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Home Office unit was which set up in January 2005.

She said: “Forced marriage comes hand-in-hand with honour based violence in a range of religions. It’s not a case of it only happens in one sector of the community.”

She added the unit has had cases from 90 different countries and that it is not just women who are victims of this crime with one in five callers being male.

Although forced marriage only became a crime in the UK on June 16, 2014, a Forced Marriage Civil Protection Act was passed in 2007.

Manjeet Paur, from Cameron Clarke Lawyers which are based in Slough, does not believe criminalisation has been a good thing so far. She says it 'deters young girls from reporting it’ because of the risk of prison for their parents.

The conference also included talks about the issues of female genital mutilation (FGM) and domestic violence and their prevalence in ethnic minority communities.

Anthony Stansfeld, TVP police and crime commissioner, said: “Two years ago, the subject was not really talked about at all. There was a fear of being called racist.

“It is a national problem, however Slough is much more vulnerable than other towns with its proximity to Heathrow and London and its ease of transport links. It’s a transient town so when people go missing it’s not noticed as quickly.”

Mrs Bilkhu said: “There’s no excuse to say it’s a cultural thing. Let’s park political correctness at the door. Safeguarding is black and white.”

The conference was held at Singh Sabha Sports Centre in Stoke Poges Lane, Slough.