Never mind forced marriages, though the practice if suspected should be investigated at the point of supplying visas for the beneficiary, worry more about why the police or other bodies are not following up when such a thing is suspected or reported , the law is in place to do so already.
Section 12c of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 reads “ A marriage shall be voidable if "either party to the marriage did not validly consent to it, whether in consequence or duress, mistake, unsoundness of mind or otherwise".
In this case 'Voidable' means that the marriage is valid until it is challenged by one of the parties, at which time the court can aware a decree of nullity invalidating the marriage.
Maybe there needs to be a minor change whereby the marriage can be investigated by the police under criminal rather than civil law if a forced marriage is suspected to have taken place. Maybe there needs to be an advertising campaign run in the press.
The point is that there is legislation in place but it is not being used by the authorities.
What I consider to be a far more serious matter is the practice of female genital mutilation, sometimes and wrongly called female circumcision. I read an item on this in another forum some time back and will try to find it. It was an eye opener to me.
It’s way past time that “cultural sensitivities” were focused one hundred percent on OUR culture and not savage and alien ideologies that are infecting our nation.
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