Police were this week calling for forced marriages to be made a specific criminal offence in a move welcomed by Keighley MP Ann Cryer.

Currently families who compel their children to marry can be charged only with offences such as assault or kidnap.

Officers told a London conference that in the past two years nearly 500 people had asked for help to avoid being forced into marriages.

Metropolitan Police research suggests a link between forced marriage and honour killings, and officers say a specific offence would make prosecutions easier. Long-time campaigner Mrs Cryer welcomed the move, saying: "Where I go, they follow."

She claimed the 500 quoted was only the tip of the iceberg where police were involved.

She said: " This is very encouraging. I am pleased they have made a connection between honour killings and forced marriages, as the killings are nearly always linked to a forced marriage or a failed forced marriage."

She said she and other Bradford MPs were regularly called in but the only intervention they could make was to prevent a visa being granted -- rather than preventing a marriage taking place. She said numbers traditionally rose during summer, when a family holiday abroad might double-up as a wedding ceremony.

Mrs Cryer said: "There is a persistent minority where parents go to extraordinary lengths to force their children into marriages, which is against every human right."

She said it could only be solved by the community tackling the problem.

"They have to take ownership and find solutions," she said.

She added that emotional blackmail was often used to make a girl agree to a marriage.

"She may be told: 'I will commit suicide if you do not marry' or 'your father will divorce me if you don't marry'," said Mrs Cryer.

Police say making forced marriages illegal would send a clear message that this is not acceptable in the UK.

Last year, Government officials said a special unit within the Foreign Office had dealt with almost 1,000 cases of forced marriage since it was set up in 2000. It had also rescued and repatriated to the UK 70 young people a year.

Although the issue is often assumed to affect only women, 15 per cent of cases identified by officials involved men and boys.