UDI has approved the marriage of an Ethiopian woman who married her husband when she was 15. This undermines Ethiopia’s fight against child brides, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Her husband lives in Norway, and his wife has filed applications for family reunification. She is 18 years old today, but was only 15 when she got married. Yet the Directorate of Immigration (UDI) has concluded that the marriage is valid, writes Our Country. The decision is strongly criticised in a note from the Norwegian Embassy in Addis Ababa.
– We find it politically problematic that Norway undermines the Ethiopian authorities’ federal legislation where the minimum age for marriage is 18 years, the note, approved by Ambassador Andreas Gaarder, says.
UDI say they have based their conlusions on information from the independent agency Landinfo. In 2000 Ethiopia adopted a law prohibiting marriage where the woman is under 18, but many states still follow the old law from 1960, where the minimum age is 15 years. UDI says Landinfo has confirmed that marriage probably has been entered into under the old law.
– We see that UD and Landinfo are making very different assesments of the matteer, senior adviser Rolf Anthonisen says. The Directorate has asked Landinfo for a new evaluation of conditions in Ethiopia. He stressed that they haven’t finished processing the application for family reunification
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
