The current age of consent to be wed is 16 in Germany, but since the country doesn’t recognise “religious marriages,” authorities have not intervened to stop such marriages. The draft law would also fine any attempts to marry minors in traditional or religious rather than state ceremonies.
But German welfare officials will now be allowed by law to take underaged girls into government care, even if they were legally married abroad. Married children will also be separated from their husbands by authorities.
Angela Merkel’s coalition government has signalled the move to annul all marriages where a participant was under the age of 16 at the time of the wedding. German courts hold the power to nullify marriages involving a person between 16 and 18 years of age. The draft law is set to receive parliamentary approval by July.
“Children do not belong at the wedding altar, they belong in school,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday. “We cannot tolerate any marriages that might harm the natural development of minors.”
The Merkel administration is under pressure to show a more determined attitude to integrate Muslims into German society before the coming elections. The immigrant minors with adult spouses is a Muslim custom and rife in Islamic migrant communities.
The Central Register of Foreign Nationals has documented a surge in child marriages in recent years. The largest group of child brides, some 664 minors, come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Bulgaria and Syria.
As of July 2016, children with an Islamic background were registered as married in Germany, including 361 under the age of 14.
Educators have warned that young girls often stop showing up for school after getting married. “There are frequently cases where a girl, usually between 13 and 15 years of age, suddenly no longer come to school,” an anonymous teacher told newspaper Welt am Sonntag last August.
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