Posted:12/09/2009 12:26 PM
Updated:12/09/2009 12:26 PM

Teenage Briton forced to leave the UK to live with her husband

A teenage couple in a genuine marriage have lost a High Court battle against a Government immigration policy aimed at combating forced marriages...


Under the policy, British bride Amber Aguilar, 18, had to decide between her academic and career ambitions in the UK or moving abroad to live with her Chilean husband.

Diego Andres Aguilar Quila, 19, had had to leave the country after his student visa expired and despite being married to a Briton living in north London was not allowed to stay. Only when the couple, said to be heartbroken, are both 21 can they live together in Britain.

The law is intended to tackle the problem where a British resident is forced to marry someone from outside the country to help their spouse get a visa to live in Britain.

Christopher Jacobs, appearing for the couple at the High Court in London, argued that the teenagers were being penalised because of an “irrational and unreasonable” refusal by the Home Secretary to allow exceptions to the rule in cases where marriages plainly were not forced.

He said there had been a violation of the couple’s right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

But yesterday Mr Justice Burnett ruled that the Home Secretary had not acted irrationally and the legal challenge must be dismissed.

The judge said “no lack of respect under Article 8” had been demonstrated.

The judge upheld submissions by Government lawyers that it was not “disproportionate” to require couples to live abroad for a period to meet a policy with “the legitimate and important aim of combating forced marriages”.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) brought the test case, to illustrate how Government’s inflexibility was “tearing families apart”.

The JCWI said Mr and Mrs Quila were currently sharing a single bed in a cramped home in Santiago where they were unable to find work and there was no welfare system.

In court they were described as “the unlucky victims” of the new “no under 21s” policy, which took effect five days after their marriage in November last year.

Mrs Quila had the dilemma of having to choose between continuing to live with her husband, an electrician, in Chile, or pursuing a three-year UK university degree course to fulfil her ambition of becoming a modern languages teacher.

Her lawyers said the kind of university course which would allow her to follow in the footsteps of her parents — her mother is a school headteacher and her father a deputy headteacher — was not available in Chile.

Illogically, the policy was being rigidly and inflexibly imposed “because it is said that rigid application will deter forced marriages in other communities”.The judge was told the couple met in 2006 at a swimming pool and began living together in 2008.

In the past, once a wife reached 18, she would have been entitled to apply to have her husband live with her in the UK.

Rejecting their application for judicial review, the judge said the question for the court was whether the Home Secretary had irrationally failed to exercise his discretion in favour of the couple.

Mrs Quila said she was “heartbroken” over the judge’s ruling.

The couple now plan to take their case to the Court of Appeal with support from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. JCWI chief executive Habib Rahman said: “We will continue to support Amber and Diego in their fight to live in the UK as a family.”

The campaign group points to a report by Professor Marianne Hester — commissioned by the Home Office, but never published.

They say it showed the new legislation would not help the victims of forced marriages, and would actually do more harm than good.

If the couple are unsuccessful on appeal, Mrs Quila will have to decide whether to remain in Chile with her husband or to return to the UK to attend a university offering the appropriate course for her teaching career.

She said: “This is a huge disappointment and I am heartbroken.

“I cannot live without Diego but I desperately want to start my education so I can teach languages in the UK.”

Her mother, Helen Jeffery, 57, from Friern Barnet in north London, who is headteacher at the George Mitchell All-Through School in Leyton, east London, said: “We are absolutely devastated.

“The Home Office claims it was trying to prevent women being forced into marriage to allow them a chance to get an education.

“The cruel irony is that the actual effect of the rule is to force my daughter to live thousands of miles from her family and prevent her going to university in the UK despite the fact nobody would ever suggest her marriage was anything but genuine.”

Mrs Quila’s father, Rupert, 47, a deputy head at Wembley High Technology College, said: “Our daughter is a British citizen and we believe she has a right to live with us in Britain with the man she has chosen to marry.

“The Government appears to be using the emotive issue of forced marriages as an excuse to introduce draconian immigration laws.”