JCWI News

Date: 30 July 2008

STATEMENT

Today the House of Lords - in a landmark ruling - trashed the Government's 'section 19 scheme' that obliged foreigners to pay for, and to obtain permission, to marry. Commenting, the chief executive of the migrants' rights charity JCWI (Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants), Habib Rahman says:

"It's a great day for human rights, for justice and for migrant communities, who were clearly the target of this discriminatory scheme.

"The Government's policy is now in tatters. It was comprehensively trashed in a unanimous ruling by the House of Lords. The Government will have to go back to the drawing board now.

"We want the scheme scrapped altogether. The scheme is unnecessary, costly, slow and bureaucratic. On top of that the authorities have the ability to deal effectively with what they see as 'sham' marriages under the current very strict immigration rules that cover marriage and settlement."

Notes to editors:

• JCWI is an independent national voluntary organisation, that campaigns for justice, and combats racism, in UK immigration and asylum law and policy.
• The 'section 19 scheme' requires foreigners marrying in the UK to pay a large fee (£295 each) to obtain permission from the Home Office to marry - unless they marry in the Church of England.  It applies to all foreigners who are not permanent residents of the UK even if their marriage will have no effect at all on their immigration status. The UK is the only country in Europe to operate such a scheme.