People can be forced, coerced, threatened or tricked into marrying someone without their informed consent. Forced marriage is a form of exploitation in the trafficking process.

Gendercide and other factors have caused gender imbalances in some Asian countries. A lack of women and girls has contributed to a trend of bride trafficking and forced marriage across the region.

Laws that allow for girls to marry at a young age make them particularly vulnerable to being trafficked for forced marriage.

Victims are taken from their homes to a different city, region or country to live with their 'husbands'. They are then expected/pressured to manage domestic tasks. Some are sold into forced sex work.

Victims are also under immense pressure to engage in sexual activities with their husbands and are highly vulnerable to abuse because they lack any kind of protection due to their isolation.

Child, early and forced marriage is widely regarded as a form of slavery and it qualifies as human trafficking if the victim is kidnapped, coerced or tricked and exploited for sex or forced labour.

Often women recruit other women or young girls, promising them an opportunity to select a rich husband in another country. Usually women have no choice in their spouse and are instead auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Many women and girls are also tricked into marriage. They think they are being recruited for a job somewhere else, only to be forcibly married and left stranded.

Child marriage frequently results in early pregnancies, which is not only a violation of a girl's human rights, but can also deprive her of an education and other opportunities.

Forced marriage and child marriage are most likely to occur in rural and poor areas, as well as to girls and women with little or no education.