IMMIGRATION
Labour has got itself into a muddle over the issue of forced marriages.
Having originally signalled [and spun] that they were minded to make forced marriages illegal, they are now backpedalling. Instead, they have launched a 3 month consultation exercise. The consultation document is entitled: ‘Forced Marriage - a wrong not a right’.
Baroness Scotland, a Labour nouveau toff and Home Office Minister, said:
She described the problem as ‘a very sensitive issue with no clear or easy answers’.
The consultation document states that the new offence would ‘disproportionately impact upon black and minority ethnic communities and might be misinterpreted as an attack on those communities’.
However, Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for Keighley and who dealt with 240 women who were involved in forced marriages last year, said:
It is arranged marriages that are the problem. There is no religion or custom which dictates that immigrant communities living in Britain must arrange marriages for their children with others overseas. This is merely a habit.
The problem with trying to target forced marriages is that it puts the onus on the victim to complain about their family and new spouse when the result could well be physical violence.
The practice of honour killings has now been introduced to the UK.
The government should no longer allow arranged marriages to enable immigration into the UK. Those who gain a foreign spouse via an arranged marriage should live overseas. That would remove the incentive for such marriages to be a means of immigration into the UK.
Those who wish to arrange marriages for their children, can arrange such marriages with others from the immigrant communities already here.
To allow the continuation of arranged marriages as a means of enabling further immigration, not only facilitates forced marriages and the accompanying misery and violence, but also prevents the immigrant communities from integrating.
Having originally signalled [and spun] that they were minded to make forced marriages illegal, they are now backpedalling. Instead, they have launched a 3 month consultation exercise. The consultation document is entitled: ‘Forced Marriage - a wrong not a right’.
Baroness Scotland, a Labour nouveau toff and Home Office Minister, said:
‘We will not introduce a new offence unless we are sure that it is the right way forward and that any risks can be properly and effectively managed’.
She described the problem as ‘a very sensitive issue with no clear or easy answers’.
The consultation document states that the new offence would ‘disproportionately impact upon black and minority ethnic communities and might be misinterpreted as an attack on those communities’.
However, Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for Keighley and who dealt with 240 women who were involved in forced marriages last year, said:
‘We have reached the point at which I don’t know why we are tolerating it. If these were white girls being whisked off, we wouldn’t stand for it.’
It is arranged marriages that are the problem. There is no religion or custom which dictates that immigrant communities living in Britain must arrange marriages for their children with others overseas. This is merely a habit.
The problem with trying to target forced marriages is that it puts the onus on the victim to complain about their family and new spouse when the result could well be physical violence.
The practice of honour killings has now been introduced to the UK.
The government should no longer allow arranged marriages to enable immigration into the UK. Those who gain a foreign spouse via an arranged marriage should live overseas. That would remove the incentive for such marriages to be a means of immigration into the UK.
Those who wish to arrange marriages for their children, can arrange such marriages with others from the immigrant communities already here.
To allow the continuation of arranged marriages as a means of enabling further immigration, not only facilitates forced marriages and the accompanying misery and violence, but also prevents the immigrant communities from integrating.
posted by erc @ 10:35 pm
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