Rise in sham marriages to beat UK immigration laws
January 08 2010 by Liam Clifford
Sham marriages are a popular way that illegal immigrants can gain UK marriage visas enabling them to live in the UK permanently.
Home Office Figures show there has been a 54 per cent increase in the number of sham marriages taking place in England and Wales over the past year.
Some 529 such cases were
reported by registrars in 2009, and the rise has been attributed to the dropping
of a government scheme that required foreigners to obtain Home Office permission
to marry in the UK. This was found to be a breach of human rights and was
withdrawn leading to a rise in scam marriages.
Law Lords said the scheme
was unfair as it targeted every foreigner living in the UK without trying to
establish if they were actually trying to obtain a UK visa fraudulently.
However, when the scheme was in place – 2008 most recently –
only 344 scam marriages were reported to authorities.
UK immigration authorities claim many of the scam marriages are using spouses from Eastern
Europe, who have a legal right to be living and working in the UK. Once married, the illegal
immigrant from outside the EU can also move to the UK on a spousal visa.
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