MARRIAGE REGISTRARS have upheld only three of 150 Garda objections made against suspected sham marriages aimed at circumventing immigration rules.
Twenty-eight of the 150 marriages with objections have so far gone ahead. Registrars have told the Government they cannot block the proposed weddings because there is no law against marrying to circumvent immigration law.
The Garda has made the objections to the proposed marriages under Operation Charity, an intelligence-led operation that has resulted in almost 20 arrests so far. However, it is reviewing the strategy following a recent High Court ruling that marriages of convenience are valid in Irish law.
Most of the suspected sham marriages are between eastern European women – mainly from Latvia and Lithuania – and men from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. The men seek residency rights through marriage to an EU citizen and are willing to pay the women several thousand euro to go ahead with a wedding ceremony.
Under an EU directive, which was given effect in the Republic in 2006, the non-EU spouses and family members of EU citizens have the right to live in Ireland and travel freely within the union.
Last year there were 1,894 applications for residency based on marriage to an EU citizen in 2010. Some 378 of these applications were made by Pakistanis, 172 were to Latvians and 39 to Lithuanians.
The Government has told its EU partners it believes a large number of these are sham marriages to circumvent immigration laws. The authorities are investigating some of the marriages with a view to blocking the non-EU spouses residency applications.
However, a landmark ruling in the High Court last month has thrown the operation against sham marriages into disarray.
The case involved a Lithuanian woman, Juztinia Izmailovic, and an Egyptian, Mahmoud Ads. Mr Ads faced deportation following a failed asylum application. They met on the internet and planned to marry in Cavan last January.
The Garda objected at the registrar’s office to the wedding and arrested Mr Ads. The couple appealed the arrest and marriage objection to the High Court.
Last month Mr Justice Gerard Hogan ordered Mr Ads’s release and ruled that the Garda had no power to prevent non-EU citizens from entering marriages of convenience for immigration purposes.
A Garda spokesman said it could not comment until it was clear whether the judgment would be appealed by the State, but it is understood the policy of objecting to marriages is under review.
The General Register Office recently confirmed it had registered 28 of the 150 marriages that had been the subject of objections. It has upheld three of the objections, typically due to identity-fraud concerns.
The office has requested legal advice on whether draft legislation to block such marriages for immigration purposes is constitutional.
Meanwhile, the increase in suspected sham marriages has prompted one of Dublin’s imams to speak out about the practice, which he says risks hurting the reputation of Pakistanis in Ireland.
Sheikh Ismail Kotwal, the imam at the Blackpitts mosque, told The Irish Times that sham marriages were 100 per cent against Islam and he had repeatedly spoken out against the practice.