The Court of Cassation in Italy has upheld an appeal that was filed by a young Nigerian lady who had ran out of Nigeria after she was allegedly forced by a relative to marry someone against her wish.
The court ruled recently that women migrants running away from “forced marriages” can be granted a form of cover to enable them to remain in Italy.
The woman’s assylum request was earlier rejected in Florence, Italy.
In her protection request, the Nigerian woman revealed she had given birth at that age of 16, and that her uncle had told her he would not help her if she did not marry an elderly man.
The request was initially rejected because the “threat” was not viewed as significant to a woman who was 20 years when she filed the request. The rejection ruling had also held that “pressure—even if reiterated and of an ‘insinuative’ sort—were not at the level of a true imposition.”
While appealing the decision, the defense said it was a case of “forced marriage” that needed protection, and that the vulnerability of the woman if she went back to Nigeria was not taken into consideration.
The court agreed that cases of “forcing, or even inducing” in marriage can warrant granting of protection.
Though she was not granted asylum by the court, the court’s decision has earned her asylum case a review.
The court held that “This does not mean that the pressure and inducing suffered did not lead to severe hardship and suffering” and added that “this affected her self-determination ability” and put her in a “situation of vulnerability” able to be classified as a “serious reason of a humanitarian nature.”
As things stand, the Florence Court of Appeals will have to reevaluate its decision in line with Court of Cassation’s ruling.
