Belgium: Opening a door to polygamy

The Belgian Constitutional Court recently rules that children of polygamous marriages should not be discriminated against. Belgian embassies and consulates have received a circular informing them of the decision regarding the 1980 law and instructing them to adapt in their handling of visa applications.

The circular, written by the Alien Affairs Department (DVZ), goes further and says that the spouse of a polygamous foreigner who has another spouse already in Belgium should not be ruled out.

The court had only ruled regarding children and said that the law may limit family reunification for people whose marriage conflicts with the Belgian public order and that of other EU countries. However, according to Freddy Rosemont, head of the DVZ, the court also annulled article 10 of the law, which banned spouses of polygamous marriages.

Rosemont says that there are very few such applications, and that in such cases the issue is decided by Brussels and not by the embassies.

Source: HLN (Dutch)

See also: Belgium: Children from polygamous marriage can reunite with father

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Disgusting. The children should be allowed to receive assistance on the basis of the fact that their mothers are single mothers, as their marriages should be unrecognized. Legal, moral, ethical, and cultural relativism are absolutely unacceptable in a free-world society. It's the job of the EU to stop this. The free world also needs to stop recognizing incestuous marriages. Gross.