The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), based in Strasbourg, in the northeast of France, decided on Tuesday that a man married to several women in his country of origin cannot automatically request family reunification to bring to Europe children born from these polygamous unions.
The case involves a 56-year-old Yemeni man who has been living in the Netherlands since 2018, where he obtained asylum. He has three wives and a total of 13 children. The man managed to bring to the country one of his wives and the eight children he had with her.
The Dutch authorities, however, rejected the entry of five other children the man had with the other two women, arguing that polygamy is prohibited in the Netherlands. The pan-European court agreed with the Netherlands' decision, siding with the country by understanding that Dutch legislation does not allow family reunification of children from polygamous marriages.
