11th April 2006
The Government has suspended the operation of controversial new rules on "sham marriages" following a High Court ruling that they breached human rights laws.
The test case judgment, won by couples including an illegal entrant to the UK from Algeria, also led to the immediate launch of claims for damages from those denied "the right to marry". Hundreds of other cases are potentially affected.
The judgment is a serious blow to Government moves, set in motion by former Home Secretary David Blunkett, to end marriages of convenience which abuse immigration controls.
The judge said preventing sham marriages was a legitimate aim, but the new marriage rules, introduced in February 2005, were not "rationally connected to that aim".
Unlawful discrimination had arisen because Church of England marriages were exempt from the rules, which prevented persons subject to immigration control from marrying unless they obtained certificates of approval from the Home Office.
The rules unfairly disadvantaged not only non-Anglican Christians but also members of other faiths, including Muslims and Hindus.
Later the Home Office said it was "disappointed" as the new regime had already led to a dramatic fall in the number of immigrant "suspect marriage" reports from marriage registrars.
An appeal was under consideration, and meanwhile moves were being made to comply with the judgment.
But the spokesman added the Government was "determined to protect the UK's immigration system and marriage laws from abuse, in particular from those entering into sham marriages".
He said that, since the new rules were introduced, the number of suspicious marriage reports received from registrars had dropped from 3,740 in 2004 to less than 300 between February 2005 and March 2006.
April 18, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Where did the Home Office get their 3,700 plus number for suspect marriages? There is no official figure I know of on the subject in the UK. I do know that the Office for National Statistics show that the inward migration to the UK IN 2004 (the last year when complete figures are available) show 582,000 people came in, yet they go ballistic about a few persecuted asylum seekers – because that expression is politically emotive in the tabloid press.
“Ye blind guides, which strain on a gnat, and swallow a camel” St Matthew 23/24.
Tony Blair who Sir Christopher Meyer has said has no appetite for detail, has set targets for removal of asylum seekers, and the blind Home Office try to deport every asylum seeker they can find. I object to the abuse of genuine love marriages and I know some, where the Home Office in cotravention of the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms “respect for family life”, deport the spouse who is from outside the EU. This is naked cruelty, and should not happen in a civilised country. See Early Day Motion 1285. I have copies of correspondence from the Home Office to a young Afghan husband of an English girl, when they wrote that they could find their human rights in Afghanistan. Yet the Foreign Office say UK citizens should not go there because of the grave risk of being killed.
The Home Office and Tony Blair deserve no respect when they can be so wicked and cruel!