This unwarranted restriction on family life should end

Speaking on BBC Good Morning Wales programme this morning Keith Best, Chief Executive of IAS, said that the Government should abandon its requirement that spouses should both be aged 21 or more where one is a non-European Economic Area citizen.

The age at which someone can sponsor or be sponsored as a spouse was raised from 18 to 21 on 27 November 2008. The Government claimed that the change was important to protect young people from being forced into relationships which they do not want at a time in their lives when they could be establishing a degree of independence as an adult through further education or through work. The highest number of forced marriage cases dealt with by the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) in the period 2005 to June 2008 involved those aged 18 (10%), followed by those aged 17 and 19 (9.5% for both ages) and those aged 20 (8.5%). 15% of all cases are men and 30% are minors, some as young as 10 years old. 

“Combatting forced marriage, which is prohibited in Islam as well as in other religions and civilized societies, is important but it should be effective. When I spoke with the Minister Phil Woolas MP about this recently he told me that raising the age limit was not having the desired effect of preventing forced marriages” said Keith Best. “We had warned at the time of consultation on the proposal last year that the measure is discriminatory against those societies where marriage is younger and would create injustice in genuine marriages. I have just dealt with a case of a 19 year old British citizen who works in the UK and has married an Albanian of the same age.  It is impractical for her to leave her job here and go to live in Albania yet her husband is prevented from joining her in this country. 

“One of the biggest problems is not of entry to the UK of persons subjected to forced marriages but of British citizens sent by their parents back to their country of family origin to enter into forced marriages there and then return to the UK with their spouses.  

“We hope that the Minister will remove this unwarranted restriction on the right to marry and have a family life and will deal with forced marriages through greater analysis of the problem with appropriate solutions.”

END