Press Archives

Thursday 15 July 2004

Campaigners warned today that the marriage measures contained in the latest asylum and immigration bill, passed in the Commons this week, not only risk discrimination, but will be inconsistently applied across the UK

The Home Secretary pressed ahead with proposals to combat so-called sham marriages to non-EEA nationals on Monday despite Joint Human Rights Committee advice which warned that they could breach international human rights law.
Under the proposals anyone seeking to marry a non-EEA national will have to obtain a licence from one of 70 new special marriage registrars, who may direct applicants to
obtain permission from the Home Secretary - at a cost of up to £200.

However, the measure requiring the couple's attendance at a special marriage registrar will not apply in Northern Ireland or Scotland. The immigration minister Des Browne said he did not want to jeopardise the marriage tourism industry in Scotland.
The JCHR has warned that the new measures are out of all proportion to the proven scale of sham marriages and risk discriminating on grounds of religious faith because they will not apply to Church of England marriages. Other experts have pointed out that they could breach the European Convention right to marry and found a family.

Additionally the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants believes they could disproportionately affect people from black and ethnic minorities who are more likely to wish to marry non-EEA nationals for religious and cultural reasons.

Habib Rahman, Chief Executive of JCWI, said:

"These measures are highly discriminatory. They will not apply to Church of England marriages - or to marriages in Scotland because the Minister has said he does not want to jeopardise the marriage tourism business there.

"However while Mr Browne is not ready to jeopardise Scottish tourism, he is ready to jeopardise people's human rights - even though he has admitted to MPs it is impossible to obtain accurate information about the scale of the sham marriages
problem."