Jasvinder Sanghera’s parents found her a husband when she was eight years old.

When she was 14, her mother showed her a picture of the man she was to marry, and when Jasvinder refused to comply with it, her parents disowned her.

Jasvinder was taken away from school, aged 15, to enter the forced marriage she ran away from. She says nobody questioned why she went missing and she became “invisible”, like countless other Asian girls taken overseas in school holidays to get married.

Today Jasvinder runs Karma Nirvana, a charity helping survivors of forced marriage or ‘honour’-related violence. She says most calls are from young people aged 13 to 24.

In a few weeks, schools in Bradford will break up for the long summer holiday. Jasvinder says this is a “critical” time for schools and young people’s services to be alert to at-risk pupils, who may be taken overseas and forced into marriage.

Earlier this year, the Telegraph & Argus reported that 96 children failed to return to school after the summer break last year – the highest number in three years and a 55 per cent rise on the previous year’s figure. The T&A requested Bradford’s figures for the past three years under the Freedom of Information Act.

Jasvinder says figures are a useful indicator of the extent of forced marriage, and is calling for statistics to be made more widely available nationwide.

“I would like to know, without having to put in a Freedom of Information request, how many children will go missing this summer,” she says. “Unless this is monitored more, victims are going to become invisible to the system, like I was when I went missing.

“Professionals trained to work with young people often don’t want to get involved because they see it as a ‘cultural issue’. It isn’t – it’s a child protection issue.

“Last October, Karma Nirvana held a forced marriage seminar and sent invitations to every school in West Yorkshire. Only two schools – one in Halifax and one in Leeds – sent representatives.

“There will be children in classrooms in West Yorkshire today who are at risk from being taken abroad and forced to marry this summer.

“Have we spotted them? Is anyone going to question why they are missing when they fail to return after the summer holiday?”

She adds: “West Yorkshire is on the map as one of the country’s 15 main areas of concern about forced marriage, yet we’re seeing a lack of intervention from schools.”

Karma Nirvana’s helpline receives around 700 calls a month, yet Jasvinder says only 100 of calls made over the last year were from Bradford. “It is woefully under-reported,” she says.

Forced marriage is set to become a criminal offence next month. Jasvinda hopes the change in the law will raise awareness of forced marriage as a crime, rather than a cultural issue.

“It means if you take someone to another country to enter a forced marriage, you are committing an offence and face up to seven years imprisonment,” she says.

“If you deceive – such as telling the young person they’re going abroad to a grandmother’s funeral or on a holiday – you can also be prosecuted.

“There are often a lot of people involved in these activities – if six people are involved in a kidnapping, for instance, they will all be prosecuted.

“Currently, forced marriage protection orders mean that anyone who breaches an injunction is in contempt of court, but under the new law that breach becomes a criminal offence.

“I couldn’t say to my mum 35 years ago, ‘This is against the law’. Now, for the first time, victims will be able to own this as a crime.”

Karma Nirvana is campaigning for a national memorial day for victims of so-called honour killings, on the birthday of Bradford-born victim Shafilea Ahmed. An online petition, to lobby David Cameron to make July 14 the date, has 98,000 signatures so far.

Shafilea died aged 17 in 2003 after suffering years of honour-based violence, including an attempted forced marriage.

Her parents drugged her and flew her to Pakistan and later suffocated her to death. In 2012, her parents were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Jasvinda says a memorial day could have a huge impact on encouraging girls and women to report abuse.

It would also serve as a reminder of girls who have gone missing. “Shafilea was never put on the high-risk register,” says Jasvinder.