Disabled women in 'sham' marriages

[WildestDreams]

Students weddings to UK women a 'sham'

Yahoo!7 News January 2, 2014, 9:23 am

A Pakistani student has been deported and another is fighting to stay in the UK after their marriages to mentally handicapped women have been declared a sham.

The first man, in his 20s, began a relationship shortly after exhausting his rights of appeal.

The pair married in a Muslim ceremony in mid-2012, but last month the judge declared the marriage fraudulent and the man was deported, according to the Daily Mail.

The second man, win his 30s, also married a woman in a Muslim ceremony in late 2011 not long after his application to stay in the UK was refused.

The woman became pregnant not long after they wed and gave birth to a son in 2012.

The man is now demanding to stay in the UK, claiming he has a human right to family life with his young son.

But in both cases, it has been claimed that the women’s disabilities meant they did not have the capacity to consent to marriage.

Relatives dance during a mass wedding ceremony organised by a Jordanian Islamic charity. Photo: Getty.

Justice Keehan said the first man had arrived in the UK to study in 2009 but an application to stay was refused.

An immigration tribunal found that he submitted forged documents and attempted to deceive officials.

The judge said days after the marriage ceremony the man claimed asylum because “he feared he would be killed by his family who disapproved of his marriage to a white British woman”.

He said the man had been refused asylum and deported in August 2012.

The judge concluded that the woman had the capacity to consent to sexual relations but did not have the capacity to enter into marriage.

In the second case, Justice Parker was appointed to decide whether the woman had capacity to consent to marriage and sexual relationships.

She said six weeks before the marriage the man’s application to stay in the UK following the expiry of a two-year student visa had been refused.

The judge concluded that the woman lacked the capacity to consent to sexual relations and lacked “sufficient understanding” to consent to marriage.

Justice Parker said the man was basing a claim to remain in the UK on his human right to family life.

Mrs Justice Parker said the case had been about the woman - not her son. She was told that man wanted stay in England with the baby.

She said plans for the little boy’s care would need “rigorous evaluation”.