"While dictators rage and statesmen talk, all Europe dances — to The Lambeth Walk."

Monday 17 August 2009

45 Polygamous Marriages in Antwerp

Translated by Islam in Europe:
There are 45 men with two or more spouses in the Antwerp (Belgium) population and foreigner register. This according to the response of alderman Monica de Coninck (sp.a) to a question by council member Wim Van Osselaer (Vlaams Belang). The question was asked due to the registration of polygamous marriages in the Dutch cities Amsterdam and Rotterdam, a year ago. Van Osselaer wanted to know how matters stood in his own hometown.

Spokesperson Eva De Wolf says that in total Antwerp has 45 men who said they had married two or more women in their land of origin. These are mainly men from Morocco, Pakistan, Mauritania and other countries where polygamy is allowed.

She also adds that absolutely polygamous marriages aren't performed in Antwerp. Whoever wants to marry in Belgium must show that he is free of any bonds of marriage. "We register only polygamous marriages for non-Belgians in the population and foreigner register if that is permissible according to the law of their land of origin." Moreover, De Wolf says that only one of the spouses can move to Belgium through family reunification.

Source: HLN (Dutch)
We'll leave the question of why Antwerp has or needs large communities from Morocco, Pakistan and Mauritania for another time.

What interests me here is the implicit double standard - the Belgian authorities will control what they do on their own territory, but not what those in their charge do - even if those people are residents who have been generously allowed to come and live in Belgium as opposed to being born there.

If these men are known about, they should be prosecuted - it is that simple.

Why should there be one rule for foreign men and another for Belgians?

All allowing men with two or more wives to live in Belgium does is significantly increase the number of children the Belgian taxpayer must pay to bring up, as well as making the law an ass.

2 comments:

Faith said...

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article1848488.ece

Same in the UK as reported in the Times in 2007...two years on how many now?

Response from my MP re-this is that it is legal in this country as long as the marriage(s) were performed in a country where it is legal and they lived there for some period of time.

Fred said...

BBC Radio 4 did a full programme on polygamy in Britain at least 5 years ago. Their line was "Golly gosh its quite common, how does it work?" As I remember the people interviewed were all educated "Asians" but there was at least one indigenous English "wife".

However I found working among the poorer "Asians" about 25% Based on a small sample brought in a second young second wife when they were about 40. They usually had a second batch of children as well. Wife number one lived nearby on Social Security.

There was even a speeding case in Scotland in the last year when the "Asians" defense was he late for his appointed call on his second wife. I think he got off!