BERLIN: Germany’s cabinet Wednesday moved to ban child marriages after the recent mass refugee influx brought in many couples where one or both partners were aged under 18.
The new law, set to receive parliamentary approval by July, is seen as a protective move especially for girls by annulling foreign marriages involving minors.
It will allow youth welfare workers to take into care underaged girls even if they were legally married abroad and, if deemed necessary, separate them from their husbands.
“Children do not belong in the marriage registry office or the wedding hall,” said Justice Minister Heiko Maas.
“We must not tolerate any marriages that harm minors in their development.”
“The underaged must be protected as much as possible,” he added, stressing that no minor must suffer restrictions on their asylum or residential status as a result of the change.
The age of consent for all marriages in Germany will be raised from 16 to 18 years. Currently in some cases an 18-year-old is allowed to marry a 16-year-old.
Foreign marriages involving spouses under 16 will be considered invalid, and those involving 16 or 17-year-olds can be annulled by family courts.
Rare exceptions are possible, for example when one of the spouses suffers from a serious illness — but only if the couple are now both adults and both want to stay married.
The draft law would also punish with a fine any attempts to marry minors in traditional or religious rather than state ceremonies.
There were 1,475 married minors registered in Germany last July — 361 of them aged under 14 — according to the latest figures released after a parliamentary request.
Of these 1,152 were girls, said the interior ministry.
The largest group, 664 children, came from Syria followed by 157 from Afghanistan, 100 from Iraq, and 65 from Bulgaria.
The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung welcomed the bill, saying that “archaic practices that harm women and children have no place” in Germany.
The aim was not to “paternalistically spread one’s values or disrespect foreign cultures,” but to enforce “fundamental and, in principle, globally recognized human rights.”
The non-profit German Children’s Aid Foundation said it generally welcomed the new draft law as a sign of “progress” but said courts should have latitude in some tricky cases where one spouse is aged 16 or 17.
These could involve underage couples that have their own children, who could then be considered born out of wedlock and lose certain entitlements and inheritance rights, warned the group’s head, Thomas Krueger.
In such cases, recognizing a marriage involving one 16 or 17-year-old “can be acceptable, for example, if the relationship is proven to be emotionally stable and there is no evidence of compulsion,” he said in a statement.
“The opinion of the minor is also decisive and must absolutely be taken into account.”
Germany cracks down on child marriages
Germany cracks down on child marriages
Rescuers search for missing sailors after US sinks Iranian warship off Sri Lanka
- US submarine attack stretched battlefield beyond Middle East, furthest point since war began
- At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed in the attack, while about 60 remain unaccounted for
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan rescuers continued searching for dozens of missing sailors after a US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, as a second Iranian vessel sailed close to the island nation’s territorial waters on Thursday.
The Sri Lankan Navy has recovered at least 87 bodies and rescued 32 people after responding to a distress call on Wednesday morning from an Iranian frigate, the IRIS Dena, which was sunk by a torpedo fired by a US submarine.
A second Iranian vessel — reportedly carrying about 100 people onboard — was heading towards Sri Lanka’s territorial waters on Thursday, said Nalinda Jayatissa, media minister and Cabinet spokesperson.
“The government is taking necessary interventions to ensure the safety of those on board,” he told parliament.
“Sri Lanka is committed to international peace, particularly peace in the Indian Ocean. We are acting according to international law and on humanitarian grounds to safeguard regional stability.”
IRIS Dena, an Iranian vessel with a crew of about 180, was sailing in international waters as it returned from the International Fleet Review 2026, a naval exercise organized by India in the Bay of Bengal, when it was torpedoed.
The strike was the first use by the US of a torpedo against an enemy ship in combat since the Second World War. Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, confirmed the sinking of the Iranian warship by an American submarine in the Indian Ocean, describing it as a “quiet death.”
The sinking of IRIS Dena came as the US and Israel continued to launch air strikes on Iran after killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian officials on Saturday, as Tehran responded with counterstrikes against US bases in the Gulf region.
The attack off Sri Lanka’s coast, thousands of kilometers away from Tehran, has stretched the battlefield beyond the Middle East, its furthest point since the war began. At least 17 Iranian naval vessels have been sunk since last weekend, according to US Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the US military’s Central Command.
Authorities at the National Hospital in Galle told Arab News that the rescued Iranian sailors were “out of danger.” One of those rescued remained in the intensive care unit, while most of them were treated for fractures and chest pain.
“They were sleeping at the time of the blast,” said a source at the hospital, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
“There is a language barrier. We find it difficult to communicate with the patients properly and have sought assistance from the Iranian Embassy in Colombo.”
Iran has requested the repatriation of the deceased Iranian sailors, according to Deputy Health Minister Hansaka Wijemuni, who said that authorities are now making preparations to do so.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that IRIS Dena was struck in international waters without warning.
“The U.S. has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores,” he wrote on X.
“Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set.”
