>>(vo) the practice of forced marriage is not condoned by the majority of the communities in which it occurs. >>i was given away at birth. >>(vo) but, when it does happen lives can be ruined, and at times it can prove fatal. >>that face that i keep in my head of my father will always be the father figure that he was, not the man who hunts me now to kill me. >>i know certain people who can find people. >>(vo) over the past 12 months we were granted privileged access to the uk government's forced marriage unit... >>they've set a wedding date haven't they? >>yeah. >>(vo)and their offices in london, islamabad and dakar. >>that would mean me showing up at his house with an armed escort. >>(vo) shadowing the unit's busy staff, in this film we meet the young british women suspected of being forced into marriage, and follow their dramatic rescues. >>his wife here. >>(vo) we will also discover

that the notions of honor that often drive forced marriage can (vo)this is the forced marriage unit. it's early morning in islamabad, and albert david and his team from the british high commission have received a message from the forced marriage unit in london that a 20 year-old british girl is being kept against her will and forced into a marriage. >>she was in contact with my colleagues, um, at the forced marriage unit in london, and she clearly does not want to be forced into this marriage. >>(vo) pakistan has a large british community, and albert's team deal with between 130 and 150 cases of forced marriage every year. a forced marriage is different from an arranged marriage, in that it is conducted without the consent of one or both of the

marrying parties. >>lots of marriages are done just to make sure that the family honor remains intact. they would not like their children to get married to someone in the uk. they would not like their children to be westernized. and, if it happens, then, yes, their honor is affected. >>(vo) usually, in cases like this a group of armed police would accompany albert's team. >>she thinks that, if the police come, it's going to create a scene over there, that the family's honor will be at stake. >>(vo) rescues can be unpredictable and dangerous. >>we've had cases where families have reacted very, very aggressively. so, um, the only danger is that they might try to harm the girl that we have gone to assist. >>(vo) after four hours of driving, the team finally arrive at the girls house.

>>we want to make sure that the young british nationals, they can practice their right to choose. it could be a difference of-for someone's life and death. >>(vo) we are told to remain behind while albert and a colleague go inside. ten minutes later, there is still no sign of anyone. suddenly, albert emerges with the girl. they want to get going quickly to avoid any possible confrontations with the local community. this is amina.

>>um, i feel a little nervous. i feel a little happy; i'm going back to london. and, i feel a little bit of--gratified. >>(vo) during the long journey back to islamabad, amina opens up about her experience. >>the situations i was facing was, um, daily tantrums that i'm not gonna get the passport. you're not gonna--they're not gonna book my ticket, you know restrictions. even i was not allowed to go out of my house, but i used to do it because i'm that sort of person. i do things my own way. >>(vo) back at the high commission in islamabad amina calls a close family friend as albert attempts to book her a last-minute flight back home. the friend on the phone mentions that she has spoken to amina's family. >>are they really, like, p'd off at me? >>(vo) by running away from her family amina may now be disowned

by them forever. >>(vo) after a long day, albert drives amina to a safe house for a few hours sleep before her flight the next day. >>will my family speak to me again? i am very hopeful, one day. for the future? to be honest, i'm going to go back to work, back to uni, back to my daily life. i can't have regrets. >>(vo) the uk's forced marriage unit is based within the foreign and commonwealth office, in london. it's the official hub from where forced marriage cases are coordinated with offices around the world. >>we work to be the center point of that operation, almost the spider at the center of a web, as it were. the team deal with between 16 and 1,700 reports per year involving many different communities. >>my name's olaf henricson-bell. i'm the joint head of the forced

marriage unit. >>(vo) olaf overseas a team of five case workers who answer a helpline that is operated 365 days a year. >>we're coming up for summer holidays, which is our busiest time of the year, as people are taken back to the countries that their families are from. um, the may be told that they're just going back for a summer holiday, and while they're there, it turns out, actually, they've been taken for their marriage. they may have been told it was a cousin's marriage, and then they get there on the day, wearing nice clothes, and it's their marriage. >>(vo) through the helpline the team receives new cases daily. >>there's quite a loud ringing there so whomever is not on a call or not doing something else will pick up the call. (laughs) a call's coming through, sorry. hello, this is lucy speaking. >>you know, don't be pressured into-into doing anything, or staying anywhere you don't want to stay. >>often it will be the victim on then end of the phone, but it might also be a family member whose on their side. >>when violence starts it can get it very bad. >>or, professionals come into contact with them, say a teacher, for instance, who's worried about them. >>you were talking about the sibling who had also run away.

>>things do move very fast. >>um, is that something... >>hello, this is fahana, from the forced marriage unit. it can be quite hard going at times, hearing all the, sort of, different stories that you come, and you think, "how could this be happening now?" >>(vo) fahana receives a call from a girl whose being forced into a marriage. >>so, you're saying your dad has been-has been hitting you and your sister. okay. so, he doesn't want you to carry on with education? >>in many ways, what these people have had is their choices taken away. their choices about who they'll marry, obviously, but also choices related to study choices related to work and so on. we see our role very much as giving them back those choices giving them back their life. >>we're not here to get your family in trouble. we're here to help you as individuals. a lot of them, they don't want to go ahead with the marriage, but they also don't want to leave their family.

it would be better if you were to go, okay, into the refuge straight away. okay, but, i mean, obviously i appreciate where you're coming from. i know you're feeling scared to go by yourself. >>in some cases, some people do choose to stay in a marriage they didn't want, because they can't face the alternative. >>(vo) after 30 minutes on the phone, the line goes dead. >>when you go home in the evening the cases do play over in your mind. >>one particular case, i can remember i was particularly concerned, and, frankly didn't sleep all night. is on the new news network. >>welcome to the war room. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. a former two-term governor. >>make your voice heard. >>detremined to find solutions. >>that partnership in order to invest in our country is critical. >>driven to find the truth. >>how did romney get his groove back? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct.

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>>when a call comes in to the forced marriage unit it is the police who are often the ones who have to make face to face visits. >>some people are very pleasantly surprised that we do interfere, if you like, we do poke our noses in, we do say "that's against the law" and we're going to stop it. >>joe griffiths is a police officer who specializes in dealing with forced marriage and honor based violence cases. >>we're the community safety team or domestic abuse team, also we deal with protecting victims who are going to be forced into marriages. >>this is a board at the moment of our current victims who are fleeing honor based violence or have been forced to marry. >>while we are with joe a call comes in from a saudi arabian woman called nadia who is being black mailed by her ex-boyfriend. >>he took a video of them engaging in sexual acts and he's

been threatening to put the video on youtube and to sent it to her father. >>nadia is worried that if her father were to see the clip she would be forced into a marriage back home, or possibly much worse. >>he'd almost effectively be signing her death warrant, i think, if she were ever to go back to saudi. hi, its joe. >>ya, okay. >>hi, i'm joe. so, you've been going out with your ex-partner... >>ya. >>...for two years. >>ya, i told him "we must break up our relation, so he doesn't agree that and he think maybe "no, i'm a man, i should not hear the woman tell me should break up our relation." >>and since you split up he's since popped a recording of that through the letter box. do you know he's been arrested he's been charged? >>ya. >>do you think that's going to stop him? >>i don't know because if he puts something in his mind he do

it and he doesn't care for anything. >>the more joe hears about the story, the more concerned she is about nadia's welfare. >>then nadia drops a bomb shell. >>actually after four weeks i will leave uk for christmas vacation to go on my county. >>hum... >>i would be very concerned if you went out there okay? i'm concerned if he finds out that your out there he might seize the opportunity and think "while you're there i can get you into an awful lot of trouble. >>the police take dna and fingerprints as a routine in such cases for the victims own safety in case they need to quickly positively identify them at a later date. >>horrified to be honest. i think that she will be in an

awful lot of danger. i would hate to have to take that call from her to say "please help me." we can not protect other people in other countries, we can't do that. i'd like to save the world, ya. wear my pants on the other side of my trousers, ya. be a super-hero but that's not what i am, i have to work within the law. >>unsure of how best to handle this case if nadia was to go back to saudi arabia, joe calls the forced marriage unit. >>good afternoon, roxanne speaking. >>oh hi roxanna, it's joe griffiths, it's just an inquiry with regards to another lady i've just been to see. she's from saudi arabia and she... >>joe explains nadia's story to roxanna. >>i have strongly advised her not to go. if she gets into any difficulty out there is there anything that we can do? >>no. in a country like saudi arabia it would be almost impossible for us to do anything even if she was british. >>the laws and conventions in saudi arabia can make it difficult for female victims of

abuse to leave the country. roxanna is worried that if something was to happen to nadia, there would be very little they could do to help her. >>no, she said that she would strongly recommend she doesn't travel and that there is nothing they can do to assist. >>okay, we'll have to just keep going with it. we might try karma nirvana actually. they might know. >>(radio announcer) bbc radio-lancashire, with sally naden. >>good mooring. we've a special program today, as we look at the world of forced marriage, hearing from all those involved, including the victims who have been scarred. >>(applause). >>on the panel today we have got jasvinder sanghera, and jasvinder is a survivor of force marriage who now helps others. >>(vo) jasvinder sanghera runs karma nirvana, a charity that provides assistance to victims of forced marriage and honor-based violence. >>b 301, and it can go on the left. >>(vo) we joined jasvinder at one of karma nirvana's nationwide roadshows designed to educated professionals, such as

police officers and teachers, so that they know how to deal with a forced marriage case if they ever were to come across one. >>did you know that there is a forced marriage unit that can help them even if they're abroad? if you didn't know that, you're victim isn't going to know that. >>(vo) jasvinder is particularly passionate about this issue, as she has has had personal experience with it. >>that's me. on the right of me is my sister. that's ravina. she was taken out of school when she was 15, being a dutiful wife and a dutiful daughter-in-law, and she suffered horrific violence in her marriage. she was told to go back and make the marriage work for the sake of the honor of the family. in the end, my sister was 24 years-old. she set herself on fire, suffered 90% burns and died. i started doing it because i felt a very strong injustice about my sister committing suicide when she was 25. she was the one taken out of

school when she was 15. she was the one nobody noticed. it is still britain's worst-kept secret. so, it's like breaking the silence, i suppose. i'm serious, we compare our direct rates side by side to find you a great deal even if it's not with us. [ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones! one woman, one powerful savings tool, one chance to hunt down the right insurance at the right price. the "name your price" tool only from progressive. ready, aim, save! grrr! ooh, i forgot my phone! the "name your price" tool.

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[[vo]]...we're the idea nobody wants to hear. ...until the truth reveals itself. boat-rockers. and above all... and there's only one place you'll find us. weeknights on current tv. >>it's morning in islamabad, and amina, who was rescued by the forced marriage unit less than 24 hours ago, is getting ready to board a flight. a few hours later, at the forced marriage unit's london offices roxanna is calling around to find amina a refuge, as she

cannot return to her family home. >>she asked for the support of the british high commission in islamabad, and we rescued her. she's been very decisive about what she wants. she's arriving at heathrow at 3 o'clock. the social workers that work at the airport, they'll escort her as far as they can. hopefully, it would be just straight through, and be out of there by four. >>(vo) matt wise is a social worker who will meet amina at london's heathrow airport. >> we're just, uh, going down the arrivals area, terminal 3, where the young lady's coming through. there are potential risks, you know, coming into the airport. family might be here to meet them that they, perhaps, wouldn't want to be meeting. we're not the police, but we would get the police involved if we need to. >>(vo) until amina is safely in a refuge, she's still at risk.

>>there is a possibility that the family meeting may be in the group over there. so, they could intercept before we get there. just picked up the bags, so they'll be through in a moment. >>(vo) amina and her social worker finally appear, and cautiously make their way along the concourse. thankfully, no one tries to intercept. amina is taken to a refuge in an undisclosed location, much like this one. >>hello, this is kinara, asian women's refuge. i am a very firm believer that the age and time we're living in, no human being should be treated in the way that they are treated and disrespected. women deserve better than that.

men deserve better than that. this is a, uh, fourteen bed women's refuge. they normally come to us and stay with us anywhere from a period of 6 months to 2 years. we do things like, um, esol classes, numeracy classes, it classes, preparing them for independent living when they move on from here. this is where the women cook from day to day. also used when we do kids birthday parties where they all sort of group together and they may cook for when we have festivals like eve or ramadan, davali. i think for any woman to uproot from her home is never an easy desicion to make and at kinara we try to make them as comfortable and homey as possible. i certainly, in my four years here, have seen some really tragic cases that have come through the front door. >>it was so hard for me, because i didn't even know anything about the outside world. my name is sweetie, and i'm 20 years-old. my dad didn't really wanted me

to study, so he was just pressurizing me not to go to college. when i told him that i'm not going to leave my studies, then they decided that they're going to send me back home to india, and then marry me to someone who i don't know, or anything. >>(vo) sweetie's parents then began to threaten her in an effort to force her into the marriage. >>started with the verbal abuse, like, and then down the line after three or four months, then he started to physically abuse me. he slapped me on my face, and he tried to strangle me. having your own parents doesn't want you to be happy, doesn't want you to, kind of, study and follow your dream was really difficult for me. >>(vo) sweetie was lucky enough to escape, although her problems did not end there. >>i am still sad, because it's affected my whole life, um because there is depression and,

still i do self harm, and i remember what happened with me. so, it's just hurt me so much. >>south asian women age 16-24 have a suicide and self-harm rate which is three and half times higher than the national average. we are the only race that is dying a lot faster by suicide in the uk, compared to our white counterparts. that's fact. >>(vo) karma nirvana are based in the north of england. we went to see them at their offices, where they also run a helpline for victims of forced marriage and honor-based violence. >>at karma nirvana we never, ever talk to any member of your family, ever. that's the story. you've rung the helpline. tell me how we can help you. at the moment we're averaging in the region of four hundred calls a month. for me, four hundred a month is just the tip of the iceberg. >>(vo) while we are with her jasvinder calls a 16 year-old girl called ruma who wants to

run away from home, because she is being forced into a marriage and suffering violence at the hands of her brothers. >>hello, i'm calling from the karma nirvana helpline. >>(on the phone) yeah, hi. >>hello. how are you today? >>i'm fine. how are you? >>are you okay? i just wanted to check that you still felt the same about wanting to leave. >>yes. >>right. and, they've set a wedding date, haven't they? >>yeah. >right, which isn't very far away, is it? i think we've only got, how many weeks? >>three. >>three weeks. >>and that the people that you were hurt most was from your two older brothers. is that right? >>ya. >>has anybody talked about marriage since i last spoke to you? >>all the time, they're going shopping and everything. they asked my to get makeup. i'm going to get that done and stuff like that. and, nobody suspects that you are going to leave? >>no. >>(vo) someone who knows what ruma is going through is zena

briggs, who ran away from her family to escape a forced marriage over fifteen years ago. >>the image of that face that i keep in my head of my father, will always be the father figure that he was, not the man who hunts me now, um, to kill me. my name is zena, originally born and bred leeds, last from yorkshire. i come from a very wealthy family. there was five siblings and a loving mother and father. we had the perfect childhood. dad always used to say, "she's a free spirit! can't clip her wings, let her fly." things would change, though, later on. when a young girl hits puberty parents decide, then, who they're gonna marry, although i was given away at birth. >>(vo) when zena was 20 she fell in love with jack, a white british man who lived down the road. worrying her parents might not accept him, she confided in her sister. >>my sister turned round and said to him, "well, if you're ever found out, that's it, they're finished with both of you.

you will be murdered." and then, i realized my passport had gone missing, and i knew it was serious at that point. >>(vo) zena knew that the only choice she had was to run away. >>back at the karma nirvana offices, jasvinder helps ruma plan her escape. >>it's probably to have to be early in the morning, like sevenish because that is when i was to carry out all of the suitcases. >>so early in the morning? >>yes, it would be fine. they would all be asleep. >>just be careful when you get your things together. put them together in a way where your family don't notice any obvious things like all of her things are missing. do you know what i mean? >>(zena) i didn't sleep at all that night. i waited till everything went silent and my father fell sleep. i knew where all the creaks on the floor boards were, on the steps, and i thought, "i got to get out the kitchen window." i put my first foot out, and i though, "oh, my god. it's freezing." and, i looked back at the house,

and i knew i'd never see it again. on the road began. >>(vo) the same journey could well be about to start for ruma. >>act as if you're never going to go back to the house again. one of my biggest regrets, when i ran away from home, was that i never had any pictures of my family. and, that's a small thing, but later on in your life it could become a big thing. yeah? >>(ruma on phone) oh, my god. >>(rustling on the phone). >>(vo) suddenly, someone enters the room ruma is speaking from. >>she's gone off the line, because someone's come in the room. >>(vo) jasvinder hangs up, but she is worried that someone in ruma's family might have heard their conversation. zena has been on the run from her family for 15 years, and is still on the witness protection program. >>i remember making the first phone call home. and, i heard my father say to me that i had died the day i'd left, and that when i was found,

i would end up in several bin liners. he had hired a bounty hunter and a private investigator to track me. >>(vo) but, life on the run is a lonely existence. >>i remember looking in the mirror, and thinking the one person i want here to hold me and tell me that everything was going to be okay was my father. and, i knew that couldn't happen. >>just refreshing to hear. no other television show does that. we're keeping it real.

>>(phone ringing). >>(vo) jasvinder has been trying to reach ruma for some time, but no one is answering. >>i'm a bit worried now. >>(vo) the worry is that ruma's plans have been discovered, and that she is now at risk of violence from here family. >>she's not answering now. she normally always answers. i feel angry, very angry. i'm feeling scared.

i feel scared for her, worried. very worried. >>(vo) jasvinder decides to call ruma's social worker. now, the phone's not been answered, and she's always answered. >>(on phone) right. >>(vo) the social worker attempts to call ruma, too. >>(phone rings). >>helpline, how can i help? >>hiya jasvinder, it's maria. i've just spoken with her. she's at the doctor's with her mum, but her mum's in another room. >>so, i can ring her? >>(vo) jasvinder calls ruma to discuss tomorrow, a day that will change her life forever. >>do your evening like you would do it normally. what's a normal evening for you? >>um, eat, then watch some tv. >>so what would you be watching then, east enders? >>holly oaks. >>holly oaks. >>all right, you watch holly oaks and you do what you're doing this evening. be normal. >>stay strong, and i ring you back, yeah? >>okay. >>remember, if i can't ring you back, just say wrong number.

all right. take care. >>bye. >>i'm pleased we've got her out, but then what happens? that's the bit that makes me feel quite sad, actually. >>bounty hunters is a term that is often used in relation to individuals who offer themselves to families to try and locate young women who have left the home even young men as well. i think they are the scum of the earth. for somebody to take money from somebody who knows full well when they hand over their daughter that they are going to kill them. i was a known criminal. do you know what i mean? i've spent twenty years in and out of prison. i know certain people who can find people. some one who has had direct experience with bounty hunters is ex-criminal turned community worker danny afzal. it's about paying somebody a large amount of money, sometimes 10,15, 20,000 pounds, to actually do and find somebody. money talks, you know if you've

got 10,15, 20,000 grand at your disposal, you can find anyone you want. clint eastwood on a horse with a poster and a picture of somebody, them methods really haven't changed except they use horses. anybody will do anything for money when you first come in from another country. what we need is proper mediators that can mediate with families around these cultural issues. and it's all about the honour with these families where we're having the problem. if in the family dynamic you have an honor-based system. what that means is, the family place more importance on the concept of honor, how they are viewed by other people, the community, than their child. >>(vo) so, what exactly is the honor system that would drive a father to hunt down his own daughter to kill her? >>what we're talking about is power and control. we're talking about men, invariably men, uh, who want to control the behavior of women in their families, women in their communities. and, in order to control them they often use threats and

violence when they think it necessary. the worst cases involve homicide. there's something like a dozen a year in this country, several thousand around the world. >>(vo) a recent un report suggested the vast majority of honor killings occurred in bangladesh, pakistan and india. >>(voice of captain) ladies and gentlemen, welcome to (indistinct) international airport, dakar. >>(vo) we went to bangladesh to investigate. it's early evening in dakar, and we receive a call telling us to go to the city's general hospital, where the victim of an attempted honor killing is being treated for her injuries. as we arrive we are told that a girl had turned down the marriage proposal of a neighbor, and so he had tried to kill her, and then himself. we found the girl in a crowded ward.

we were then told that the perpetrator was in a ward in the same hospital, being guarded by armed police. the boy was in to much pain to talk, so we went back to the girl's neighborhood in a poor area of dakar to try and get some information about what happened. we eventually tracked down the girl's family, who are very angry at the boy for what he had done. the girl's father took us downstairs to show us just how close to them the boy lived. suddenly, a group of neighbors approached us as we were filming with the father.

from the argument it started to become clear that marriage had been discussed between their parents. the girl, however, had refused and this left the boy feeling such shame he felt that killing her was the only was to restore his and his family's honor. the alarming factor is that the majority of the community appeared to agree with him. we returned to the hospital to talk to the boy. such emotions only make sense if you live in a social system rooted in strong notions of honor and shame. most forced marriages are motivated by honor.

the newest voice in cable news is on the new news network. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. this former two term governor is politically direct.

>>for uk citizens who are forced to marry abroad there is help. in bangladesh, the british high commission handles one case per week related to forced marriage, although they admit there could be hundreds of cases a year that they never hear about. >>i'm alan morrison. i'm the british consular. we cover all sorts of types of consul work, focused primarily on providing assistance to highly vulnerable british national in bangladesh. that, of course, includes young people which have been brought here and forced into marriage. so, this'll be the point of entry to our public. so, when they come to the high commission, this is what they'll see. you don't normally see this side, but this is our interview room. so, if we have to talk to

someone in a confidential setting, we'll talk to them here. >>(vo) it's lunch time at the high commission, and alan has just received a tipoff that there is a british girl who may have been forced into a marriage. she's staying in a village in a remote part of sylhet, in the north of bangladesh. >>even though the high commission's in dakar, we come to sylhet quite regularly, because that's where--that's where all our work is, really. we think there's up to 80,000 british citizens in sylhet at any one time. >>sylhet was never a rich area. the paddy fields were barren. people had no work, or things like that, so, most of the people went to the port areas, and they took jobs in different ships. and, they went to europe, and mainly to the uk, and they never came back. >>(vo) today, there are pockets of wealthy in sylhet, most of which are a consequence of connections to the uk. >>if you drive into the

countryside, you'll find these great big houses that, the person who own it comes from the uk and has been sending money back, and, you know, with a view to retiring there. after a six hour drive, alan and his team arrive in the girls village just outside of sylhet city. there is an element of danger. if the girl is being forced into a marriage and she requests our help and we take her away, there can be a lot of annimosity to say the least. >>is his wife here? can i speak to her? are you (bleep)? my name is alan morrison. i am from the british consol. is it okay if i have a quick word with you? a few months ago you went to the police in the uk.

>>that was a mistake, basically. i was in love with someone else but he is married and now i like the guy that i'm staying with. so, i'm happy here. >>it's good to hear that. >>this time thankfully, the girl does not need to be rescued. she appears happy with her family's choice of spouse. however the case will remain open. >>the whole thing revolves around consent of the person involved. i won't resue someone against their will but then again they shouldn't be foreced into marriage against their will either. while there is help out there for british citizen forced into marriages, we wanted to know what assistance there is for local bangledeshi women. this is nina goswami. a human rights lawyer who works with bangledeshi victems of forced marriage. we asked her how many women were being subjected to forced marriages in bangledesh.

while reliable statisics are hard to come by, it's clear that a large number of forced marriages occur in bangledesh each year and effect a considerable number of women. in a refuge in dakar. we came accros a particularly extreme case. this is marla. a child who is forced to marry a 36 year old man by her father and step mother after her mother died. he went to the police station and she came to us. she does not know how old she is. husband stayed with her one month and then left her, only to

meet the physical need of the husband. marla's age might seem shocking however, according the the forced marriage unit in the uk 16.5% of the cases they assist involve girls under the age of sixteen. >>the blood is in the water and the sharks are bipartisan. >>you got a bone to pick with that? i just got the popular girls from the local middle school to follow me around.

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order. that's next on "the war room." (vo) at the high commission in bangladesh, alan has been keeping an eye on another case. that of a girl called dipika. dipika has recently been forced into a marriage, but she didn't want to be rescued until all of her immediate family had safely returned to the uk. alan has just received a text

message from her asking for help. >>the text message she sent explained that she has been forced into marriage, and she's been emotionally blackmailed by her husband's family. and, threats have been made against her family. please help me. we know there's a british citizen there. we know she needs our help, and we'll try and get to her as soon as possible. >>(vo) as far as possible, alan and his team avoid doing rescues in villages because of the risk of violence. for this case, alan has persuaded her new husband to bring her to the high commission. she's due in at midday. >>when they arrive, if you'll let me know, what i'll do is have a quick word with her husband at the counter, then i'll invite his wife in here to talk. if i think he's being overly aggressive, i'll ask him to go into the interview room. >>we are expecting even the worst possible thing, because the husband might get angry, or he might be abusive to us, and i

don't know how it will end up, but let's hope for the best. >>(vo) at midday, there is no sign of dipika and her husband but all the team can do is wait. >>if she doesn't show here at all, my plan, really, is to visit her in her home today. >>(vo) at 1 pm alan begins to get nervous, and decides to head to where dipika is believed to be staying. >>if the girl does come along, call me. any problems just give me a call. >>(vo) just as alan is about to leave, dipika and her husband arrive. >>yes, they are here. where is the girl? >>is this her husband? hi, is this your husband? yeah. hi. thank you for coming in today. if you just wait, i'll have a quick word with--i'll come and speak to you here.

i'll just go and get her now. >>(vo) dipika has been married for three weeks. during this time she will have had to have sex with a man she was forced to marry. she is taken into the safety of the high commission, and for the first time in weeks, she is free from here husband, who has been left in the waiting room. >>nothing from here on in will happen without your agreement. you're the one that's in control of your life at this point. no one else. can you help me? she's on the phone to her friend in the uk, but she's started to cry. i think, maybe if i send a woman in there, it will help. she--she's obviously quite scared. i mean, this is a life-changing decision. >>how old is she? >>she's 19. >>is she--she couldn't make up her mind, or she's thinking? >>she doesn't want to be married to this guy. we know that.

>>yeah. >>but, she's not sure whether she wants to be rescued or not. she went through with the marriage because she thought that her family was in great danger. so, she waited until they flew back to the uk before she told us she wanted rescued. so, she's actually been very brave. >>(vo) dipika's husband has been waiting fifteen minutes, now and he's getting agitated. >>i mean, like i said before you don't really have to make this decision now. if you go back with your husband, it will make it much more difficult in the future, if you change your mind. but, we can still try and resolve that. that would mean me showing up at his house with an armed escort. and, if you think they're going to be angry with you going back to the uk now, they'll probably be worse if i have to take you away from the village. i'm conscious i've got a husband out there. the longer she waits, the more difficult it will be for her to

go back and explain why she's been in here. have you decided what you want to do? you want to go back to the uk. so, what i'll do now is, i'll go and speak to your husband. >>(vo) dipika's husband is getting increasing restless, as he realizes something is wrong. >>could you ask him to come into the interview room? i've spoken to (bleeped). what she's told me is that she thinks she's made a mistake, and she wants to return to the uk rather than go back to the village with him. well, tell him i'll go and ask her if that's ok, but it's her decision whether she does this or not. i can't promise that this will happen. she's made her decision. she wants to go back to the uk. i've broken the news to her husband. he wanted to, you know, say goodbye to her. she's agreed to speak to him. he might try and talk her

out of her decision. she might come out and have changed her mind. i can't not let her speak to her husband, so we'll see what happens when she comes out. everything ok? >>she's crying. i don't think it was good idea for her to speak with him. >>we can't stop her. i'm expecting her to come out and have changed her mind, but let's see. >>(vo) ten minutes later, alan and fasana are still waiting. >>it's been ten or 15 minutes that they are talking. i wouldn't be surprised if she changes her mind. girls from bangladesh, even if they have been brought up in the uk, they have almost no say in their family. they can't make decisions for themselves. >>(vo) alan eventually decides he should intervene. >>everything ok? i think we need to go now.

>>(vo) eventually, and to alan and fasana's surprise, dipika's husband agrees to leave. >>with him gone, she's made her decision and has decided to go back to the uk, which is good. >>i still think it's the best decision, and i think i really helped someone. >>(vo) alan leaves to take dipika to a refuge before she is flown home for the uk. >>when we're driving away with a girl that we just rescued, it would be wrong to say they're very, very happy, because they know they've just lost their family. almost every single one of them had an immense sense of relief. >>(vo)back in the uk, we caught up with sweetie, who just achieved a and b grades in her a levels. >>it's brilliant. it's just brilliant. getting an a in a levels, which i didn't expect. (laughs). i applied to go to uni to study forensic computing, which is um, my childhood dream. this is a trophy, which i got for being the best young

person of the year. it was just out of the blue, because i didn't expect to be that i was going to win that because there was more, more than a thousand applications. >>we're very proud of you girls. at the end of the day you've come really far and achieved so much. you should be proud of yourselves. absolutely brilliant. >>(vo) and, another day draws to a close at the forced marriage unit in london. >>we're not in the business of phoning people telling them how to live their lives. what we're there to do is help people make decisions about their lives, and once they've made that decision, to help but, no one's thinking that this is a short-term activity. we're here for the long-term to make sure the help is still there.