DAR AL HARB - U.K.: POLYGAMY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

1,000 men living legally with multiple wives despite fears over exploitation

Dominic Kennedy
Polygamous marriage is flourishing as the Government admits for the first time that nearly a thousand men are living legally with multiple wives in Britain.

Although the families are entitled to claim social security for each wife, no one has counted how many of them are on benefits.

Ministers appear to be ignoring the separate practice of unauthorised polygamy, which is said to have become commonplace in some Muslim communities. The Ministry of Justice admits that it has no estimates of numbers for these unions, which are often presided over by an Islamic cleric.

A senior Conservative MP and immigration expert called for action last night to end the scandal of women being pressured into entering unrecognised marriages with no rights.

“The Government has no grip on the situation,” said Humphrey Malins, the former Shadow Home Affairs Minister and founder of the Immigration Advisory Service. “This is quite clearly exploitation of women.”

MPs and peers have struggled for years to extract figures from ministers about the extent of polygamy. The first official estimate was made in response to a freedom of information request by The Times asking for statistics on benefits that are paid to wives who share a husband.

“It is estimated that there are fewer than 1,000 valid polygamous marriages in the UK, few of whom are claiming a state benefit,” the Department for Work and Pensions said. “Because of the small numbers concerned, our IT systems do not specifically record such information.”

The Government has long reassured Parliament that its policy is to prevent the formation of multiple marriages by refusing to allow second wives entry into the country. Under British law, husbands and wives can have only one spouse at a time. Multiple simultaneous marriages constitute bigamy, a criminal offence.

Britain does recognise polygamous marriages that have taken place in countries where the custom is legal, such as Pakistan, Nigeria and India. The Home Office said that multiple wives in polygamous marriages may be allowed into the country as students or tourists.

Officials are advised to let extra wives into Britain even if they suspect that a husband is trying to cheat the system by getting bogus divorces.

“Entry clearance may not be withheld from a second wife where the husband has divorced his previous wife and the divorce is thought to be one of convenience,” an immigration rulebook advises.

“This is so, even if the husband is still living with the previous wife and to issue the entry clearance would lead to the formation of a polygamous household.”

Opposition politicians are concerned about the burden being placed by polygamy on the social security and tax systems.

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Hat Tip:

The Religion of Peace


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