Britain's control over its immigration policy was called into question last night after the European Court overruled a Home Office refusal to allow a Moroccan to live in the UK.
The European Union's Court of Justice said Hacene Akrich - who married a British woman while living illegally in the country - could not be refused entry under European free movement rules.
[. . . .]
Mr Akrich had been trying to settle in Britain since 1989 and was deported twice before returning in 1996, when he married.
Do you believe, given that he was an illegal and was deported twice before returning, that on his part at least, this was not a marriage of convenience?
When the couple decided to return to Britain from Dublin, they admitted to embassy officials that they were seeking to exploit EU rules offering a way back for Mr Akrich.
The court said this would be an abuse of the system only if the couple had entered into a "marriage of convenience". Where the marriage was genuine, the spouse from a non-EU country automatically acquired the rights of his EU-national husband or wife.
[. . . .]
The Court of Appeal held that denying food and accommodation to a Malaysian national seeking asylum was not a breach of his human rights because he had not passed the threshold of destitution required.
• There was a record net migration to the UK in 2001 of 172,000, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday.
My Commentary:
There are other articles of interest at the Telegraph site Asylum costs spiral out of sight and Immigrant numbers jump by 400,000. It seems to me governments that belong to the EU will be hamstrung in any effort to control their borders. NJC
