UK ban on young non-EU spouses ruled unlawful

A government ban on non-EU foreign spouses under the age of 21 coming to the UK is unlawful, Britain's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The ban was introduced in 2008 to prevent a foreign husband or wife from outside the EU from joining their partner in the UK if they were under 21 years old. But the court said that the immigration rule had unlawfully interfered with the right of a couple to a private and family life - a crucial element of the European Convention on Human Rights. The ruling overturns a judgement by the High Court, which backed the ban as a measure to restrict immigration designed on the argument to prevent forced marriages. But declaring the rule incompatible with couples' human rights Supreme Court said the government had not shown a good case for interfering with the right to private and family life. “The number of forced marriages which it deters is highly debatable,” Lord Wilson said in making the judgement. “What seems clear is that the number of unforced marriages which it obstructs from their intended development for up to three years vastly exceeds the number of forced marriages which it deters,' Wilson said.