Record number of Australian teenagers being forced into marriages: data

Teenage girls in Victoria are being forced into marriages in record numbers, police data has revealed.

Authorities in the state are investigating dozens of child-bride and forced marriage cases, with Victoria accounting for almost a third of such infringements in Australia.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigated 69 incidents of forced or underage marriage in Australia in financial year 2016, 19 of which were in Victoria.

The national figure was up from 33 investigated cases in the previous financial year and 11 cases in financial year 2014.

Law enforcement agencies consider the investigated cases the tip of the iceberg, with many victims of forces marriages being too fearful to contact police.

Reports were most commonly made by concerned school principals, teachers or counsellors.

The release of the data came as Melbourne man Majed Mamosi was likely to be the first person convicted under federal forced-marriage laws introduced in 2013 that criminalized forced marriage.

The laws have proven difficult to prosecute due to a reliance on victims testifying in court but Mamosi's guilty plea to a forced-marriage charge in April meant the victim's testimony was not required.

Mamosi admitted that he had arranged a forced marriage in Melbourne's northern suburbs in 2015.

Forced marriage in Australia carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.

A spokesperson for the AFP said that because the 2013 legislation was not retrospective, forced marriages that occurred before March 2013 could not be prosecuted.

Another Melbourne man, Ibrahim Omerdic, is awaiting trial after being charged with forcing a marriage in 2015.

It is alleged that Omerdic performed a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and a man twice her age at a mosque in Noble Park, 25 km southeast of Melbourne.

The girl's "husband" pleaded guilty to marrying the girl in March. Endit