A nine-year-old Sydney girl has allegedly left the country to be married overseas, just one of a dozen cases since June, a women’s health service says.

The Immigrant Women’s Health Service in western Sydney said it received a tip-off on Monday about a case involving a nine-year-old child bride.

The service spoke to the girl’s mother but said it could not get specific information. It is suspected the girl will be married in the Middle East.

The ABC could not confirm the claims.

Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the Government had launched a new arranged marriage safety plan to encourage young women to speak up if they were being forced to marry.

“We’re very keen to … make sure that if somebody is to come across this type of crime that they know how to go about helping that person to report it to authorities so we can do something about it,” he said.

“We’re making sure that we have materials out there to educate the community about what to look for and so these crimes can be reported and then the appropriate authorities can go and prosecute them.”

But Dr Eman Sharobeem, director of the Immigrant Women’s Health Service, said the strategy would not work because girls were too scared to implicate their families.

“Forced marriage and child brides happen among the culturally and linguistically diverse communities, those communities will not go to the website and will not share glossy papers to see what’s written about legislation in the country,” she said.

It is suspected the girl will be married in the Middle East.

“I don’t hope and wish to see parents behind bars … I already tried with many of them to talk about informing the authorities, and as soon as I put that on the table the girls actually turn their back and say ‘we’re not even going to have a conversation with you’.”

Instead Dr Sharobeem said the Government’s new strategy needed to put more resources towards grassroots education campaigns and to teach girls how to speak to their families.

“‘Teach us how to talk to our parents, because our own mother wants to send us to a man we don’t know’, are some of the words I heard from these girls,” Dr Sharobeem said.

“It breaks my heart to see that we’re trying our best to save lives and yet the Government is printing glossy paper.”

The Government says a new national action plan will refine Australia’s response to forced marriages over the next five years.

Mr Keenan said the Government would also develop a forced marriage community pack for frontline service providers.

Islamic Council of New South Wales chairman Khaled Sukkerieh said while he does not know about the case, any alleged act is illegal and against the Muslim faith.

“Islamically (sic) that’s not acceptable and we don’t know anything about the case, but on the face of it a nine-year-old hasn’t got the mental capacity or the age to marry herself off or to consent to a marriage,” he said.

To commemorate International Day of the Girl Child last year, photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair teamed up with  National Geographic  to create  a series of photos depicting girls as young as five years old being married off to middle-aged men in countries like India, Yemen and Ethiopia. Take a look. All images from the Daily Mail .

Faiz, 40 (left), and Ghulam (right), 11, sit in her home prior to their wedding in the rural Damarda Village, Afghanistan on September 11, 2005

Nujood Ali was ten when she fled her abusive, much older husband and took a taxi to the courthouse in Sanaa, Yemen

Police woman Malalai Kakar (back right) arrests Janan, 35, after he tried to kill his 15-year-old wife Jamila for angering him by fleeing her home to stay with her mother following years of abuse.

A young prostitute named China sits stunned after being beat up by a man visiting Kabele Five in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

Ghulam, 11, says a prayer with male family members to cement her engagement to Faiz, 40.

Maya, 8, and Kishore, 13, pose for a wedding photo inside their new home the day after the Hindu holy day of Akshaya Tritiya, or Akha Teej, in Rajasthan, India.

Tahani (front), 8, is seen with her husband Majed, 27, and her former classmate Ghada (rear), 8, and her husband outside their home in Hajjah, Yemen

Sarita, 15, is seen covered in tears and sweat before she is sent to her new home in Rajasthan, India

Sumeena Shreshta Balami, right, 15, leaves her home to meet her groom, Prakash Balami, 16, in Kagati Village in Nepal

Young girls sit inside a home outside of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, in 2010

Priest Addisu Abebe, 23, and his new bride Destaye Amare, 11, are married in a traditional Ethiopian Orthodox wedding in the rural areas outside the city of Gondar, Ethiopia

Portrait of Said, 55, and Roshan, 8, on the day of their engagement, Afghanistan

Asia, a 14-year-old mother, washes her new baby girl at home in Hajjah while her two-year-old daughter plays

Debritu, right, 14, escaped from her husband while seven month pregnant

Faiz, 40 (left), and Ghulam (right), 11, sit in her home prior to their wedding in the rural Damarda Village, Afghanistan on September 11, 2005

Tahani (front), 8, is seen with her husband Majed, 27, and her former classmate Ghada (rear), 8, and her husband outside their home in Hajjah, Yemen.

Sarita, 15, is seen covered in tears and sweat before she is sent to her new home in Rajasthan, India.

Sumeena Shreshta Balami, right, 15, leaves her home to meet her groom, Prakash Balami, 16, in Kagati Village in Nepal.