The UK government on Monday warned that migrants on spousal visas who fail to speak English may face deportation, as it announced a new £20 million fund to improve English language skills among migrant Muslim women.
“We will now say if you don't improve your fluency , that could affect your ability to stay in the UK. This will help make it clear to those men who stop their partners from integrating that there are consequences,“ Prime Minister David Cameron wrote in a commentary in The Times newspaper.
The new rules will mean that from October this year, migrants coming to the UK on a five-year spousal visa with poor or no English skills will have to take a test after two and a half years to show they are making efforts to im prove their English.
“We will also fund a dramatic improvement in the way we provide English language services for women... we will make sure every woman from isolated communities with no English skills at all has access to classes, whether through community groups or further education colleges,“ Cameron wrote.
He flagged up the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities as the heart of the language barrier in the country .
“We must also make more progress on English language. It is at the heart of solving this. Consider this: new figures show that some 190,000 British Muslim women -or 22% -speak little or no English despite many having lived here for decades.“
The prime minister said that English classes will be held in homes, schools and community centres with travel and childcare costs provided to encourage the maximum participation.
“This is Britain. In this country , women and girls are free to choose how they live, how they dress and who they love. It's our values that make this country what it is, and it's only by standing up for them assertively that they will endure,“ the PMCameron wrote.
Segregation, the Cameron said, is allowing “appalling practices“ such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage to exist, and increasing vulnerability to recruitment by the Islamic State terror group. He also announced a review of the role of Britain's religious councils, including Sharia courts, in an effort to confront men who exert “damaging control over their wives, sisters and daughters“.
However, Cameron's comments have drawn criticism from Muslim groups and opposition parties.
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, which campaigns for better community relations, accused him of “disgraceful stereotyping“.
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