London: British schools were on Thursday urged to look out for signs of forced marriages ahead of school holidays.

"All children have the right to grow up safe from harm," Baroness Delyth Morgan, minister for young people, said.

"As the end of the school year nears, it's vital that we get the message out that forced marriage is totally unacceptable and where children are subjected to this practice, the impact on their education and their future is devastating."

Girls from the Indian subcontinent, specially Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sikhs, are thought to be particularly vulnerable to forced marriages - a practice that the British government has tried to confront in recent years.

Experts say that the coming month will be critical because of evidence that families use the school summer holidays to force children to marry abroad.

The British foreign ministry, acting jointly with the home ministry, has rescued a number of girls and women abroad from becoming potential victims of forced marriages.

A report published by the department for schools, children and families Thursday urged schools to play a greater preventative role.

Meanwhile, the government's Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) said calls for help on the unit's helpline in the first six months of 2009 have increased 16 percent from the corresponding period last year, the BBC reported.

The unit, run jointly by the Home Office and Foreign Office, received 1,600 reports last year - and intervened in 420 cases, including action abroad by specialist units.

And British courts made 36 forced marriage prevention orders, a recently created power designed to prevent people being taken abroad against their will.

A new guidance published by the FMU urges teachers to be aware of signs of a possible forced marriage because school and college is often the only place where the potential victim can speak freely. IANS