Chancellor Angela Merkel's government moved on Wednesday to outlaw forced marriages against a backdrop of a growing debate about immigration and integration in the country that is home to some four million Muslims.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said forced marriages would be treated as a criminal offence with a jail term of up to five years if the law is passed by parliament. Forced marriages are currently treated as a form of coercion.
"Forced marriage is a problem in Germany and we must take it seriously," de Maiziere said. He added it would be wrong to tolerate forced marriage and merely consider it a tradition belonging to other cultures.
The law would give affected parties more time to annul forced marriages. There have been several high profile cases in Germany of forced marriages in Germany's Turkish community. But the government said the problem is not limited to Islamic circles. [Reuters] Read more
