UK marriage visa fraud figures unveiled
July 27 2010 by Liam Clifford
UKBA report
A report published by the UK Border Agency claims that thousands of UK marriage visas have been issued to people from Pakistan without the proper checks being carried out.
Some
6,750 Pakistani people were granted UK marriage visas last year. The report
claims that almost a third of these could have been obtained through fraudulent
means, which suggests as many as 2,000 may have been issued to
fraudsters.
The report found that in 31 per cent of cases, UK immigration
officials failed to scrutinise the evidence that the UK visa applicant had the
financial means to support themselves when joining their husband or wife living
in the UK.
Many of the employee references that were not scrutinised have
since been found to include spelling mistakes that suggest they may be
fraudulent. Unexplained cash deposits into applicants’ accounts have also been
noticed since the UK marriage visas were granted.
One example of a
questionable visa was the one issued to the wife of a man who lied about his job
and was receiving council tax benefits.
UK immigration minister, Damian
Green, said, “This is very serious indeed. Thousands are being granted not just
access to ‘lack of scrutiny’ Britain, but a meal ticket for life on bogus
applications.”
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