Crackdown against underage migrant brides urged as charity claims Germany has HUNDREDS
GERMAN politicians are aiming to crack down on underage marriages over reports migrant children as young as 12 are being sold off to rich, older men.
More than a million refugees that have arrived in Germany from Syria and other war torn countries had been fleeing civil war and terror groups like the Islamic State.
But among those refugees are hundreds of child brides, who were effectively turned into trading goods to be bought by rich men and transported to foreign countries for their alleged safety.
German authorities say they will put a stop to the practice, and have announced they will refuse to accept any marriages involving minors.
The minimum age for marriage in the European state is 18, but it is possible for a young person aged 16 or 17 to marry, if a family court gives consent, and the other party to the marriage is at least 18.
Since the beginning of the refugee crisis the number of child marriages in Germany has increased dramatically.
Exact numbers don’t exist according to Myria Böhmecke, consultant at human rights organisation Terre des Femmes, but she says “we know from people who work with refugees that the numbers have increased”.
According to her estimate, there are several hundred underaged wives in the country.
Bavaria alone has registered 550 cases of brides aged under 18, and 161 under 16, among the asylum seekers that have arrived in the recent migrant wave.
In most of these cases, the young girls were already married before their arrival in Germany.
It is believed the girls, who are deemed especially vulnerable during periods of conflict, are being married off by their parents in the hope of keeping them safe from physical violence in their home countries.
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Girls as young as 12 have been married off to older men in Syria
Some say the trading practice has become routine, with rich men from neighbouring countries travelling to refugee camps and offering families money for a wedding with their daughters.
The older man and his child bride will then flee for European countries such as Germany where these marriages have – until now – been deemed legal.
In one case, a court in the city of Bamberg recently decided that the marriage of a 15-year-old girl to a 21-year-old man, conducted under Syrian jurisdiction, could be regarded as legal in Germany.
Although the youth welfare office wanted to decide on a guardian for the girl, her husband fought against it – and the Regional Appeal Court declared the marriage to be legal despite her being underage.
But Terre des Femmes criticised the decision, stating: “We’re shocked that the verdict can be dismissed with such a justification.
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The minimum age for marriage in the European state is 18
“Against the advice of the youth welfare office that clearly said the girl, only being 14, is not ready to be able to assess the consequences of marriage yet.
“They didn’t fundamentally reject the idea of an underaged girl living with her husband. But marriage to a girl under the age of 16 can under no circumstances be found legal.”
Now politicians have stepped into the debate, with Justice Minister Heiko Maas declaring his country will no longer recognise marriages involving children under 18.
He added: “No-one who comes here has the right to put his cultural values or religious beliefs above our law.
“Everybody must abide by the law, no matter whether he has grown up here or has only just arrived.
“We cannot tolerate forced marriages, above all, if they affect under-age girls.”
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/680933/Trafficking-child-bride-migrant-underage-marriage-Germany