Is it just me . . ?

I have to say that I am very concerned about Government policy on a number of topics; not the least of which is its apparent uncritical willingness to take an entirely unjustifiable and unfair approach to women – perhaps particularly Indian and Pakistani women – who are in a vulnerable position as a result of the bad conduct of their husbands.

What I’m actually talking about is the problem of foreign women who are married by British men, and brought to the UK – where they often don’t speak the language – on the basis of their marriages.

I’m not suggesting that abuse of them by their husbands – physical and/or mental – is invariable : it’s probably only a very small percentage who suffer this; but the fact is that those who are in this position have little to hope for.

OK; there is a provision that allows them to apply to remain in the UK on the basis of ‘domestic violence’ : the problem is that not only do they have to provide quite a high level of evidence of that abuse, but they also have to be legal when they make the application . . . and if the husband denounces them to the Home Office as soon as they escape from his clutches, the Home Office curtail their leave to remain in the UK on the basis of the husband’s information, and without asking them for their side of the story.

Is that fair ?

No, I don’t think it is either; because it more or less ensures that they then have no chance of being able to remain in the UK; and, of course, they therefore have little or no chance of being able to secure any realistic – fair, if you prefer – financial compensation from their husbands during the divorce process . . . because they won’t be here to state their case : which is probably exactly why the husbands want to get rid of them in the first place.

I’d have thought that this was not only flagrantly unfair, but that any reasonable person could recognize that fact . . . and yet it appears that the Home Office can’t see it.

Is it me that’s wrong, or is it that the Government just can’t see that the current system is unfair to people who are already suffering more than they deserve ?