Cambodia bans froeign marriages

[samsbs 0]

I don't know if this has been posted already. But it really sucks.

Cambodia bans marriage to foreigners

April 3, 2008

Earlier in the week South Korea stopped issuing resident visas to Cambodians marrying nationals from that country. Today, concerned by the recent surge in Korean-Khmer weddings, the Cambodian government has banned Cambodians marrying all foreigners.

Cambodia has suspended marriages between foreigners and Cambodians amid concerns over an explosion in the number of brokered unions involving poor, uneducated women, an official said Thursday.

The move follows an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) report highlighting the plight of an increasing number of Cambodian brides migrating to South Korea in marriages hastily arranged by brokers who make large profits.

[...]

While no systematic exploitation was uncovered, several cases of abuse did raise a red flag with the government, said You Ay, secretary of state with the Women’s Affairs Ministry.

“Seven women have returned from South Korea because they could not stand what happened to them there,” You Ay told AFP.

On one hand this seems like a prudent move. Yet on the other, it also seems like a gross violation of people’s basic human rights. Who is the government to say who can and cannot marry? In most of the rest of the world, the mere insinuation that people from Country X were banned by their government from marrying outside their race would be an outrage.

The government should do its job: evaluate each marriage application based on its merits — not ban marriages across the board. Banning marriages outright is not just lazy and inept, it’s probably criminal.

[rebeccajo 14]

Well, depends on whether it's an outright ban or not.

USC's can't even just fly over to the UK and marry a UK citizen. They can with a fiance visa, but even that government won't issue a marriage license to an international couple.

[payxibka 10,048]

old news

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=119966

[rebeccajo 14]

Um...

It appears to be old 'unresolved' news.

So that was an unneccessary comment.

[payxibka 10,048]

Ummm... the article quoted is well over a month old... it may be resolved, it may not have been in the last month...

[mawilson 2,133]

USC's can't even just fly over to the UK and marry a UK citizen. They can with a fiance visa, but even that government won't issue a marriage license to an international couple.

Really?! That sucks.

[rebeccajo 14]

Ummm... the article quoted is well over a month old... it may be resolved, it may not have been in the last month...

What I am saying is I don't see the VJ community got any more information, even if there was a resolution.

[Ban Hammer 14,569]

Ummm... the article quoted is well over a month old... it may be resolved, it may not have been in the last month...

What I am saying is I don't see the VJ community got any more information, even if there was a resolution.

isn't consolemaster's wife from there?

[payxibka 10,048]

Ummm... the article quoted is well over a month old... it may be resolved, it may not have been in the last month...

What I am saying is I don't see the VJ community got any more information, even if there was a resolution.

The OP said that he didn't know if the inforamtion was posted before... I provided a link to a thread that was started well over a month ago (three days after the quoted article was written). The information was the same as what was previously posted therefore "old news".

Maybe this would be what you would consider an update to the VJ community

"Italian starts petition to end ban on foreign marriages "

Written by Sebastian Strangio

Friday, 02 May 2008

An Italian man has launched a petition against the government’s ban on marriages between foreigners and Cambodians, describing the March decision to halt such unions as “unacceptable.”

The petition, advertised in the Cambodia Daily on May 1, was organized by Stefano Magistretti after the ban left eight months of planning for his wedding in disarray.

.....................................

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php?opt...5&Itemid=52