400 a year trafficked for sham marriages

About 400 young women are being trafficked into Ireland to take part in sham marriages while the Government has so far failed to close a loophole that allows the criminals organising them to go free.

Latvia, where many of the young women come from, has said the lack of co-operation from gardaí and Irish authorities is making the job of tackling the issue very difficult.

Now the Council of Europe has asked Ireland to take urgent action to amend the law to include sham marriages as a form of exploitation and give the gardaí the powers they need to intervene in such cases.