A national count of missing schoolgirls has been ordered by the Government amid fears that hundreds have been forced into marriage or are living in fear of “honour” violence.

Ministers have called on local authorities to carry out immediate checks in 15 areas that have been identified as forced-marriage risk zones, after it emerged that 33 girls had vanished from the school roll in Bradford alone.

It is the first attempt to map the national scale of the problem, which police, support workers and victims say is kept hidden by a conspiracy of silence among some, predominantly South Asian, communities.

The move came after ministers said that they were seriously concerned by the number of schoolgirls who were unaccounted for in West Yorkshire, despite inquiries by Bradford City Council. The authorities lost track of 205 youngsters, of which they have determined the whereabouts of only 172.

“If some of these figures are anything to go by, then this is a tragedy unfolding before us,” said Margaret Moran, MP, a member of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which is investigating forced marriage and which prompted the inquiry. She said that the number of young people being taken out of education and forced into marriage was “woefully underestimated”.

She added: “If there are 33 still missing in Bradford, I don’t see why it would be any different anywhere else. Multiply that accordingly, and you would not be too far off the hundreds, possibly more.”

Officials have been given until Tuesday to count how many girls are missing from school across England, but education authorities are finding it difficult to engage with many conservative communities. Campaigners say that a fear of being seen as racist, and misplaced cultural sensitivity, are preventing teachers from following up cases when youngsters are removed from classes.

During evidence, the select committee heard complaints from support workers at Karma Nirvana, a refuge in Derby, who were prevented from putting up posters in local schools before the holidays, the peak time for children to be married abroad against their will. Headteachers said that they were worried about upsetting the community.

Ms Moran, Labour MP for Luton South, said: “We are having the same debate about this that we used to have about the wider issue of domestic violence 20 years ago. People used to say, ‘It’s just a domestic’, in the same way they are now saying, ‘It’s just cultural’. No it is not. It can be kidnap, it can be rape. It is crime.”

The Forced Marriages Act allows victims to take action only under civil, not criminal, law — the reason being that victims are less likely to press criminal charges against their closest relatives. About 300 cases are reported annually to the Government’s Forced Marriage Unit.

However, Philip Balmforth, a former inspector who is now the vulnerable persons officer responsible for Asian women in the Bradford district, said that he dealt with about the same number in West Yorkshire alone.

Referring to the 33 girls missing in his area, he said: “If these girls are missing, who has been told? Who is doing anything about it? I want to know from every education authority, ‘How many children did you lose last year? And where are they?’ At the moment, we just don’t know. It’s like knocking a nail into a piece of stone.”

The Home Affairs Committee is to report on forced marriage and domestic violence within the next two months.

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