The number of suspected sham marriages staged to cheat immigration laws may have multiplied five times over the past decade, a report has revealed.
It said fake marriages, regarded by Home Office officials as the ‘route of choice’ for those trying to dodge the rules, are ineffectively policed and open to abuse by organised crime.
European Union free movement laws can be easily used by those running fake marriage rackets, the report from the Migration Watch UK think-tank said.
It also criticised the exploitation of ‘proxy marriage’ rights granted by British courts, in which a marriage contracted abroad is recognised as genuine – even when one of the marriage partners was not present at the wedding.
Evidence for the spread of these marriages is provided by a comparison of figures provided to MPs by the Home Office in early 2014 with those obtained through Freedom of Information enquiries this year.
Official figures say registrars reported 561 suspected fake marriages in 2009 – which rose to 1,891 in 2012.
But the numbers – as reported by registrars – have risen steeply in recent years.
And according to FOI figures given to The Guardian, there were 2,868 reported sham marriages last year.
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