Mick Hartley

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Extra Spouses

I love the image they’ve chosen to illustrate this story:

Polygamous husbands settling in Britain with multiple wives can claim extra benefits for their “harems” even though bigamy is a crime in the UK, it has emerged.

Opposition MPs are demanding an urgent change in the law, claiming that the Government is recognising and rewarding a custom which has no legal status and which is “alien” to this country’s cultural traditions.

Officials said yesterday a review was now under way into whether the state should continue to pay out income support, jobseeker’s allowance and housing and council tax benefits to ‘extra’ spouses.

Islamic law allows a man to take up to four wives, providing he can provide for them fairly and equally. But British law only ever recognises one spouse, while bigamy is punishable by up to seven years in jail.

However, if a husband and his wives arrive and settle in Britain having wed in a country where polygamy is legal, then the UK benefits system recognises his extra wives as dependents and pays them accordingly.

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3 responses to “Extra Spouses”

  1. Hilary Wade Avatar
    Hilary Wade

    The flip side of this is the story in “Refugees 1960” (Kaye Webb & Ronald Searle) of the Albanian peasant who’s taken his widowed sister in law on as a family member – since for him, local custom and honour require that he support her. Her status in his family is now described, again in accordance with custom, as “wife.” He applies to enter the USA as a refugee. His application is refused, because he is guilty of committing bigamy. At the time of publication of the book, he and his family have been waiting in a refugee camp (i.e., former concentration camp) for some years, while the authorities shift the paperwork about…
    Searle draws the man and his family. The picture is brilliantly moving, and it would obviously be inhumane to have left them in the camp. But I don’t know how you could make provision for this sort of case in regard to welfare – no idea.

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  2. dearieme Avatar
    dearieme

    Do I see Francis in the photo?

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  3. Mick H Avatar
    Mick H

    I believe that’s him wearing the fetching black wig.

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