§ LORD BROCKWAYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they now permit male applicants to enter this country to join their wives on the same basis as women applicants are allowed to enter to join their husbands.
§ BARONESS YOUNGMy Lords, the rules governing the admission of husbands to join wives who are settled in this country are set out in the Statements of Immigration Rules for Control on Entry which were laid before Parliament on 25th January: HC 79 for Commonwealth citizens and HC 81 for European Economic Community and other non-Commonwealth nationals.
§ LORD BROCKWAYMy Lords, how can the noble Baroness, with her own distinguished record, justify in principle the treatment of wives as the property of their husbands who are to be their bread-winner—which is the principle behind this present legislation?
§ BARONESS YOUNGMy Lords, the position of husbands who wish to join their wives in this country is that if they have a grandparent born here they are entitled to do so. The Home Secretary has discretition to allow in husbands who wish to join their wives where there are special circumstances; but the general rule governing this matter was laid down in 1969, and it is that it is recognised that generally wives would live where their husbands live, and not the reverse.
§ LORD WADEMy Lords, on this point of special circumstances, where a 1134 man and wife have been married for a number of years and have a family and where the wife is here with the family and the husband wishes to join the wife and the family—the husband not being allowed at present Ito come into this country—should not that constitute a special circumstance which would justify favourable consideration of an application to join the family?
§ BARONESS YOUNGMy Lords, if the noble Lord, Lord Wade, has a particular case in mind he should make representations on that point; but the kind of special circumstances that the Home Secretary would consider are compassionate ones.
§ LORD BROCKWAYMy Lords, quite apart from the 19th century principle, is it not the case now that there are 300 husbands who are unable to join their wives in this country and that the wives have to bear the breadwinner's task of keeping the family together; while, if it were the other way about—the husband in this country—the wives would be allowed to join them? Can she possibly justify that?
§ BARONESS YOUNGMy Lords, if the noble Lord, Lord Brockway, is referring to the husbands who do not hold British passports of Uganda-Asian wives who do hold them and who are in this country, I should like to say that my right honourable friend the Home Secretary has had conversations with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and is doing all he can to bring about the reunifying of these families.
§ LORD GARDINERMy Lords, is not this discrimination between the sexes simply a survival of the days when the wife was regarded as the property of the husband? Secondly, if a Jamaican nurse comes to work here and has a disabled husband, ought she not to have the legal right to have her husband with her and not be dependent upon the good will of the Home Secretary?
§ BARONESS YOUNGMy Lords, I should have thought that the answer to the second point of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Gardiner, is that this is the kind of case that the Home Secretary would wish to look at. I can only repeat what I said earlier: that the general 1135 principle governing this matter was laid down in 1969 because, as I understand it, the rules were subject to some abuse.
§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILLMy Lords, I wonder whether the noble Baroness will enlighten me. When she says that the rules were subject to some abuse, does she mean that there were certain men who contrived marriage in order to get into this country and who, after they had been here for a very short time, then sought to dissolve the marriage? Is that what the rule stems from?
§ BARONESS YOUNGMy Lords, my understanding is that there seemed to be a number of immigrants who contracted marriages and who thereby found a way of coming into this country by joining their wives. The number seemed to be increasing steadily and therefore the rules were introduced in 1969 to meet the circumstances.
§ BARONESS LLEWELYN-DAVIES OF HASTOEMy Lords, when the noble Baroness referred to the conversations that Her Majesty's Government are having with the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees, were the Government discussing reuniting these families of British-passport-holder wives in this country or in other countries?
§ BARONESS YOUNGMy Lords, I think I said that the Home Secretary was having conversations with the United Nations Commissioner. I should not want that to be misunderstood. He is discussing the whole question of reunifying these families. The United Nations Commissioner is also discussing this matter with other countries.