There are at least 60 child brides living in south-western Sydney, and many more girls are destined to be forced into under-age marriage, according to the head of a women's health centre.

Eman Sharobeem works with teenage girls in Fairfield, Liverpool and Cabramatta. Many of them have been married in the past three years.

Campaign: Dr Eman Sharobeem hopes to educate families to prevent forced marriages. Credit:Sahlan Hayes

She said that forced and under-age marriages would not stop until immigrants received education the moment that they stepped onto Australian soil. If they were not educated about Australian values and laws, new arrivals would continue to be taught by already settled communities who encouraged the illegal and archaic practice, she said.

Dr Sharobeem, who is the manager of the Immigrant Women's Health Service in Fairfield, said under-age marriage was carried out by many cultures across Asia, India and the Middle East and had nothing to do with religion.