Germany: Afghans are allowed to have their second wives join them

In Germany, polygamy (“bigamy”) is prohibited – nevertheless, in two cases, second wives from Afghanistan have now been allowed to join their husbands in the Hochsauerland district.

According to the newspaper “Westfalenpost”, the immigration office of the Hochsauerland district has confirmed two of these cases of bigamy. What looks like a scandal, however, has a comprehensible background. The reason for the action is a family reunion that has been approved by the federal government.
According to this, two Afghan local workers who worked for Germany in their home country were allowed to take their second wives and their children. The decisions were made by the federal government. The families are also randomly assigned to the Hochsauerlandkreis according to a calculation key. Specifically, one of them is a husband with two wives – however, he only lives with one wife and three children, the second wife lives in a separate flat with another seven children.

The other husband lives with two wives and nine children. According to the newspaper “WP”, new legal problems arise in the process: one of the children was born in Germany and cannot get a German birth certificate because her parents’ marriage is not recognised in Germany.

After the Taliban took power in 2021, the German government had promised the local Afghan forces to rescue them from the life-threatening situation in Afghanistan and to create the possibility for them to come to Germany.
In Germany, double marriage or polygamy is prohibited by law and is considered a punishable offence, unless it has been contracted abroad according to other permitted rules, as in many Islamic countries. However, there are also other justifications: In 2018, two cases in Pinneberg (Schleswig-Holstein) concerned the reunification of a Syrian second wife. At the time, the decision was justified by the fact that the main reason was that children should grow up with their biological mother in a foreign country and fleeing war and displacement.

Bigamie-Fall in NRW: DARUM durften Afghanen ihre Zweitfrauen holen | Regional | BILD.de