THE BOARD of Deputies of British Jews has met with the Immigration Minister to register their concerns about proposed changes to the age limits for marriage visas.The President of the Board, Henry Grunwald QC, led a delegation to meet Liam Byrne MP, Immigration Minister at the Home Office today. They expressed their concerns about the planned changes, which would see an increase in the minimum limit for which such visas were granted from 18 to 21 years, would have a negative impact on principally the Charedi (strictly-Orthodox) community.
Joining Mr Grunwald as part of the delegation were the Board’s Community Issues Director, Alex Goldberg, and representatives from the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations and Agudas Yisroel. The meeting followed a recent Government consultation on this issue, and meetings between Home Office officials and the Board of Deputies.
The proposed changes have been prompted by the Government’s efforts to tackle the issue of forced marriages within the Asian community, although both the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office acknowledge that no such issue exists in the Jewish community.
In the wake of recent revelations about girls disappearing from schools in Bradford and elsewhere, and apparently being forced into marriages abroad, the delegation expressed support for efforts to address this problem and discussed ways of ensuring that consent is established before couples marry.
Nevertheless, they voiced concern that raising the age for marriage visas would simply mean that such unions would take place overseas, where no satisfactory regulation exists.
Moreover, this would have the unintended consequence of forcing young British Jews to leave the country in order to be able to start married life.
This would particularly affect the Charedi community, where just over half (51 per cent) of UK marriages are between a British citizen and someone residing outside of the EU.
A spokesman for the Board of Deputies reported that Mr Byrne said he was sympathetic to the concerns raised.
Following the meeting, Board President Henry Grunwald remarked that “the Minister listened carefully to, and understood, our concerns. We hope and trust that when the Government announces the result of the consultation process, those concerns will have been met.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce