Gardaí to investigate 400 ‘sham’ marriages

GARDAÍ are investigating 400 marriages by Latvian citizens in Ireland to non-EU spouses, believing many of them to be a sham.

The single greatest number — 173 — were to Pakistani nationals followed by 33 to Ukrainians and 53 from India, according to figures from the Department of Justice.

The 400 applied for residency in Ireland last year, which they would be entitled to on the basis they were married to EU nationals.

However, Justice Minister Alan Shatter told his fellow EU ministers yesterday that he was seriously concerned about this “highly irregular pattern of marriage”.

Ireland and Britain are two of the countries that appear to be targeted by criminal gangs who fly in “brides”, usually from eastern European countries.

Gardaí objected to almost 60 marriages last year and investigated complaints of false imprisonment and rape from a number of women who came to the country on the offer of a job, but were pushed into marriage.

It is not illegal in Ireland to organise a marriage for money or to enter into a sham marriage.

In some other EU countries, registrars can cancel a marriage if they fear it might not be genuine. In some cases they can get the immigration service involved and the couple can be interviewed.

Mr Shatter said he has asked his officials to look at the Immigration Residence and Protection bill to draft amendments dealing with immigration-related marriages of convenience and sham marriages.

Marriage registrars had been asked to help identify possible sham marriages and the Department of Justice had begun interviewing some applicants for residence and their spouses to decide if the marriage was genuine or not.

The Latvian authorities complained to the Government some time ago about the big number of women travelling to Ireland to get married. Gardaí have been working with the Latvians through Interpol and Eurojust to crack down on the criminal gangs.

The scams are well organised — gardaí uncovered 10 would-be brides flying into Dublin on the same flight from Latvia.

Usually they are aged between 18 and 21 and are paid between €3,000 and €5,000. Some remain in Ireland while others leave immediately after the marriage.

Normally couples have to wait three months between applying to marry and the ceremony, but many are now applying to the Circuit Court for an order to shorten the time.

As a result, gardaí say the couple can complete the transaction within a week, which would include organising all the necessary documentation and applying for a PPS number.

Once the spouse — usually a male — has the EU marriage certificate he is free to work in the EU under the Free Movement Directive and can apply for Irish citizenship in five years.

The previous government introduced legislation that would only give residency rights to the spouse if he or she had already lived in another EU country. However, this was rejected by the European Court on the basis that it interfered with the fundamental right of free movement within the EU.

Mr Shatter said that while there was no “magic bullet” to deal with the problem, he will bring proposals to the Dáil shortly. He called for greater harmonisation among EU member states on their asylum systems.