BETWEEN 10 and 15 per cent of the civil ceremonies conducted across the country may be “sham marriages” aimed purely at circumventing immigration rules, one of the country’s main marriage registrars has warned.
Dennis Prior, superintendent registrar for the Health Service Executive eastern registration area, said the increase in suspected bogus marriages, which is now estimated at several hundred per year, was “disheartening and demoralising” for registrars.
He said registrars had only limited power to block marriages and revealed that officials were discussing a green card-style interview to identify genuine unions.
“When you look at our own Constitution it is there to prevent an attack on marriage and actually it just seems like an attack on marriage is taking place,” he said.
“I have seen ceremonies where two interpreters were required for a marriage when clearly the bride and groom couldn’t understand each other.
“Other indicators are: a man holding all the documents for a woman; the bride and groom not knowing each other’s address at the interview; a bride having no friends at a ceremony; and the same people often attending different marriages,” said Mr Prior.
The HSE eastern area is the biggest in the country, performing about 2,500 of the 6,200 civil ceremonies in 2009. But an increase in suspected sham marriages has been noted all over the country as non-EU nationals – typically from Pakistan and India – seek residency after marrying an EU citizen, according to Mr Prior.
He said the problem of sham marriages was more acute for civil ceremonies because local priests would meet a couple several times before they married in church.
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 travel freely within the union.
The Government had attempted to limit this right, claiming that it encouraged sham marriages. But it lost a key test case at the European Court of Justice in 2008 on the issue and can now only refuse residency applications on limited grounds.
New figures show the number of people applying for residency rights based on marriage to an EU citizen increased to 2,129 in 2009, up from 1,207 in 2006.
In the first six months of this year, 1,182 non-EU nationals applied for residency based on marriage to EU citizens.
Pakistanis have made 223 spousal applications this year, which is the largest number submitted by any nationality. Almost a third of these applications (95) are based on recent marriages to Latvian women. There have been 131 applications from Nigerians and 71 applications from Indians.
Mr Prior said he was receiving a growing number of requests for support from registrars who suspected the marriages they were solemnising were a sham.
“I get one or two requests for support a week and I would estimate that 10 to 15 per cent of marriages are at risk of being a sham marriage. This is a big increase from two years ago,” he said.
Mr Prior said tackling the problem was complex because there was no law defining sham marriage, or making it illegal to either accept money for a marriage or to marry for immigration purposes.
He said the General Registry Office and the Department of Social Protection were drafting new guidelines for registrars to follow in identifying sham marriages and were considering changing the interview process for marriages.
“We are considering asking more in-depth questions at the interview stage, although this would probably require a change of legislation,” he said.
Currently, registrars only ask basic questions at interview such as a couple’s name and address.
If the plans under consideration were implemented, couples could face more detailed questions, such as how they first met; if they lived together; what they had for breakfast; and to provide photographs of themselves together, said Mr Prior.
The Garda recently launched an operation to prevent and detect criminality associated with sham marriages. This has led to several arrests linked to the offences of bigamy, false documentation and evading deportation orders.