A Yemeni asylum seeker has taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after Dutch authorities refused to allow his children from his second and third wives to join him. The outcome could set a precedent: the so-called “right to family life” may open the door to legal recognition of polygamous family structures in Europe.

For the first time in its history, the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights(ECHR) is set to rule on a case directly linked to polygamy. Khaled Al-Anesi, a Yemeni lawyer who was granted asylum in the Netherlands after the Arab Spring, claims that the refusal to permit family reunification for his five children violates the right to respect for family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

After fleeing Yemen, Al-Anesi brought his first wife and their eight children to the Netherlands under family reunification rules. However, he did not bring his second and third wives, as polygamy is illegal and not recognised in the country. Later, he applied to have the five children born of those wives join him.

Dutch authorities rejected the request, stating that the children are safe and under protection with their mothers in Turkey, where they hold refugee status – rendering the current application unwarranted.

Officials also suggested that Al-Anesi could divorce his other wives in order to allow the children’s family reunification-based entry — an option he flatly refused.

A Precedent for Polygamy in Europe?

Al-Anesi now argues that the Dutch state is violating his right to family life.

The Court therefore faces a fundamental question: should a European country, in the name of human rights, recognise a polygamous family structure, even where polygamy is explicitly prohibited by law?

From a legal standpoint, the issue is not the formal recognition of polygamy itself, but whether children from such marriages have the right to live with their father in the host country.

However, if the ECHR were to rule in Al-Anesi’s favour, it could create a loophole: children — and indirectly, their mothers — might invoke human rights protections to secure residence, thereby circumventing national bans on polygamy without directly violating them.

The Court has accepted the appeal, though the Netherlands has not yet submitted a response. A ruling in the Al-Anesi case is expected in 2026, the ECHR told NIUS.

Polygamy Often Tolerated Despite Official Bans

In Germany, polygamy is also formally banned. In the summer of 2016, then Justice Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) declared: “There is no place for polygamy in this country.”

„Multiple co-existing marriages cannot be recognised here in Germany.”

Ein jemenitischer Asylbewerber zieht gegen die Niederlande vor den Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte. Khaled Al-Anesi will fünf Kinder aus seinen Ehen mit seiner Zweit- und Drittfrau nachholen. Der Fall könnte wegweisend sein: Das „Recht auf Fa… https://t.co/GgC2cuhsXy

— exxpress (@exxpressat) November 7, 2025

Yet the reality is often different. Authorities have at times turned a blind eye, as in the case of an Iraqi refugee who arrived in Bavaria’s Neumarkt district during the 2015–2016 migration wave with two wives and thirteen children. All received refugee status, despite the German Penal Code prohibiting bigamy, reports Nordbayern.de. The reason for the exception: the marriages had been contracted abroad under Islamic law, which permits up to four wives.

Furthermore, children are entitled to family reunification — meaning that a second wife may enter Germany under the pretext of joining her children, as Lothar Kraus, a regional immigration official, explained to Nordbayern.de.

A Wider European Question

The mass migration from Muslim-majority countries raises a broader question for Europe: how will national governments and the European Court of Human Rights handle the growing number of polygamy-related cases in the future? A ruling in favour of Khaled Al-Anesi would, in effect, establish that polygamy is not a sufficient reason to deny family reunification. Such a decision could set a powerful precedent for the whole of Europe — a prospect that many observers regard with deep concern, notes Exxpress.