London: Britain’s top court backed a government attempt to limit immigration by ruling yesterday that an income test for those who want to bring their non-European spouses to the UK is acceptable and does not infringe human rights.
Prime Minister Theresa May introduced a rule in 2012 when she was interior minister that Britons who wanted to bring spouses from outside the European Economic Area to the UK had to be earning at least £18,600 ($23,170) a year.
The Supreme Court said the minimum income requirement had caused significant hardship to many, but ruled that in principle it was not inconsistent with the European Convention on Human Rights.
“The fact that a rule causes hardship to many, including some who are in no way to blame for the situation in which they now find themselves, does not mean that it is incompatible with the Convention rights or otherwise unlawful at common law,” the court said.
The income threshold, it added, was “part of an overall strategy aimed at reducing net migration,” with aims that were “no doubt entirely legitimate.” However, campaigners who had claimed the income bar was a breach of human rights to a family life celebrated caveats to the ruling.
The court said the current rules did not adequately account for the protection of children or the possibility that alternative sources of funding be allowed other than the income of the Briton.
