Amsterdam - Dutch and foreign nationals residing in the Netherlands should be prosecuted if they force others into marriage abroad, Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin wrote parliament on Wednesday. Hirsch Ballin was responding to an appeal by lawmakers to the government to step up measures to curb forced marriages abroad.
Every year, an estimated several hundred teenage girls, most of Moroccan and Turkish descent, do not return to the Netherlands from a summer vacation abroad. It is believed many are married off against their will.
At present, the Netherlands only institutes criminal proceedings against people who force others into marriage abroad provided the particular country where the marriage takes place also prohibits forced marriages.
If the person is authorized in a particular country to marry off his child, existing Dutch law does not allow for prosecution.
In his letter, Hirsch Ballin wrote that "the freedom of the individual to choose his or her spouse is of fundamental importance ... Forced marriages do not fit in the Dutch context."
