Today we hear about how our government has been remiss in their responsibility for the care of teenage girls brought to Australia under a government visa program to marry old men. Two hundred 17 years old girls were granted prospective spouse visas and hundreds of older girls also received visas after being sponsored by much older men. The visa stipulates they must marry their sponsors within nine months. 
A year 10 Lebanese schoolgirl arrived in Australia on a spouse visa for an arranged marriage only to find that her intended was decades older and a violent drunk who kept his previous wife and children in an adjoining house. When she went to authorities and sought protection, her own family threatened to kill her. "She will be slaughtered and killed," the girl's family said in a letter. "By God I will kill you at the airport and I will bury you in the grave. O you dog."

We have a higher regard for women in this country and a strong message needs to be sent to the Muslim community that this is not acceptable practice. This is just another example of how Islam refuses to conform to our values, they continue to send for young girls to marry old men without a second thought for their feelings and condemn them to a life of misery.  Disgusting.

FriYAY wrote on Nov 7^th, 2011 at 1:27pm:


16, with parental permission...(generally)

toots wrote on Nov 7^th, 2011 at 12:41pm:






http://annamariacom.blogspot.com/2011/11/muslim-girls-imported-to-marry-old-men....

Maybe you'll believe the ABC?

Hundreds of girls brought to Australia by older men

Simon Lauder

Updated November 07, 2011 15:51:18



One 17-year-old was sponsored by a 57-year-old man and another by a 50-year-old.

Map: Australia

There are calls for the prospective spouse visa program to be urgently reviewed after official figures show 17-year-old girls are coming to Australia to marry much older men.

The Department of Immigration has released figures on prospective spouse visas issued to applicants aged under 21 over the past five years, which include hundreds of visas granted to 17-year-old girls under the sponsorship of an older man.

The Opposition says cases involving 17-year-olds who come here to marry much older men are disturbing, but the department is defending the program.

Australian Childhood Foundation chief executive Joe Tucci says he is concerned by the figures. He says there is evidence the program is being abused and that it should be reviewed.

"It is really surprising that there was such high numbers of young people who were being allowed to come into Australia on these sorts of visas," he said.

In most cases the age difference is a few years or less, but many 17-year-olds have been brought to Australia by prospective spouses aged in their 30s.

One 17-year-old was sponsored by a 57-year-old man and another by a 50-year-old.



Dr Tucci says large age gaps should warrant extra scrutiny and the visa program should be investigated.

"Anything beyond two years, I think, puts us in the realm of needing to scrutinise whether it is appropriate for that young person to get that kind of visa," he said.

The Immigration Department says applicants must meet a strict range of criteria and there are checks to make sure no abuse is taking place.

But Dr Tucci says those tests and assessments also need to be scrutinised.

"I think that just like in child protection we need to have a transparent process that enables us to see what are the questions being asked, how is that assessment being undertaken, because if we are not satisfied that that assessment is rigorous enough then we may be inadvertently allowing these children be exploited or to run the risk of being harmed in some way," he said.

"And I think whilst a government department says they are doing everything that they can, a lot of government departments say that and don't always act in children's interests."

Alarm bells

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told The World Today the prospective spouse visa program has not changed since Labor came to government in 2007 and is in keeping with the Marriage Act.

But Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says he is disturbed to hear some 17-year-olds have been sponsored by prospective spouses decades their senior.

"When you have the sorts of stories that were reported today which involved allegedly girls under the age of 18 being brought out on marriage visas, prospective marriage visas to people sometimes three times their age, then alarm bells should certainly ring," he said.

"What I want to know is have those alarm bells been ringing?"

Migration Institute of Australia head Maureen Horder says only a small portion of the 6,000 prospective spouse visas issued each year are for 17-year-olds and the applicants usually wait until they are 18 to get married.

But she admits some cases do highlight the need for more scrutiny.

"I'm not keen to see any young woman with that kind of age difference in any relationship, but really, let's look at it objectively," she said.

"In our society people make many choices about who their partners and who they marry are and it is very difficult for the state to get in the middle of that.

"We deplore any situation of forced marriage and I think there was a reference to someone being forced to marry. Now that is just unacceptable, I think, in our society completely. It is certainly unacceptable to our institute."

Training issues

Ms Horder says it may be a matter of better training within the Immigration Department.

"For someone to get a prospective spouse visa, the people have to be known to each other for a start," she said.

"I mean, that is one of the criteria; they must know each other and both the applicant that applied for the visa and the sponsor can be interviewed by departmental officers if they think that is necessary.

"Now the only question left in my mind is really whether in fact there are some cases that would come under the radar, as it were, particularly with younger women where the interviewer may not be particularly trained to observe where there may be something slightly wrong.

"So there is an issue in the back of my mind about whether the training of interviewers from the department is sufficient - like should we be treating these cases where it is a minor with people who are specially trained to deal with it."

The Department of Immigration says there are significant checks and balances to ensure that relationships are legitimate before a visa is granted.

It says the policy minimises the potential for abuse.

Annie Anthrax wrote on Nov 7^th, 2011 at 4:36pm:



YEAR 10 in school, not 10 years old.

Quote:


Anybody who wants to marry with an age gap of greater than two years should be scrutinized? I think that might be the most alarming statement in the report.

Look what it says is that out of thousands of sponsered visas for the purposes of getting married two involved teenagers marrying persons in their 50's. I have to tell you sheltered people that that goes on all the time. It sounds as though in the muslim community the incidence is well below the Australian cultural norm.

The girl that was lured into an unsavoury relationship, with the conivance of her parents apparently, is really in need of protection and from the sounds of it she got it.

Personally I don't like the idea of 17 year olds marrying men thirty and forty years older, but it happens and is legal. There are thousands of agencies that openly tout arranged relationships between Australian men and East European, Asian, African women. The deal is not about love, it's about economics, we all know this.

Nothing to see here.

toots wrote on Nov 7^th, 2011 at 5:29pm:


The point is toots 'what do you propose should be done to stop it'?

I'd rather a girl be married at 17 and pursue her dreams than become a single mum.