LONDON: In a bid to crack down
on forced marriages, the British government has raised the minimum age - from 18
to 21 - at which foreign nationals, mainly women from India, can get marriage
visas to enter the country.
The new
move came after a long campaign by Ann Cryer, Labour MP for Keighley. The
government had earlier raised the minimum age requirement from 16 to 18.
Once the new guidelines are
implemented, about 3,000 people below the age of 21, mainly women from India,
will be prevented from coming to Britain in a year, according to the Sunday
Times newspaper.
The Metropolitan
police had called for forced marriages to be made a criminal offence, suggesting
a link between the practice and 'honour' killings, and argued that raising the
age limit would make prosecutions easier. However the government had rejected
this.
In 2006, British Prime
Minister Tony Blair had signalled his support for a bill making forced marriage
a civil offence, which meant that victims could sue for damages rather than the
offenders being sent to jail.
According to British government sources, 18 percent of
marriage visas issued to people from the Indian sub-continent in 2005 were to
those under 21.
"We stand
emphatically at all times for equality of respect and treatment for all
citizens. Sometimes the cultural practice of one group contradicts this... A
good example is forced marriage. There can be no defence of forced marriage on
cultural or any other grounds," Blair had said.
