Thread: LIE DO ; IAs and fake marriage scam in Ireland

LIE DO ; Illegal Immigrants Find EU Loophole By Getting Married
Weddings Faked to Get Residency Con Exposed As State Fights Back
Friday, September 26, 2008 4:59 PM

(Source: Daily Mirror)By GARY ANDERSON
MORE than 2,000 illegal immigrants have made Ireland their home in the last two years by exploiting a fake marriages scam, it has emerged.

The con centred on non-EU nationals paying EU citizens - often Eastern European women - up to r10,000 to marry them and then claiming residency in Ireland.

Justice Department officials exposed the bogus unions - many between couples who could not even speak the same language - and kicked the illegals out of the country.

But two months ago the European Court of Justice ruled the marriages were legitimate - forcing the Government to invite many immigrants to return.

And the judgement has opened the floodgates for a wave of illegal immigrants to buy Irish residency by buying themselves a husband or wife.

European justice department officials held crisis talks in Brussels yesterday to close the loophole.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern told the Irish Daily Mirror: "Bona Fide asylum seekers and immigrants need have no fears but we can't stand over a situation where a coach and four can be driven through EU and Irish immigration procedures.

"We have evidence that up to 600 bogus marriages have already taken place - where would-be newlyweds who don't even speak the same language have suddenly discovered wedded bliss.

"We know it doesn't add up but it does mount a serious challenge for Ireland and the rest of the Europe."

The EU Freedom of Movement Directive allows EU citizens who have married a foreign national in one European country and met its immigration requirements to move freely to Ireland.

But the law - enacted here in 2006 - barred illegal immigrants from moving here with the intention of marrying just to gain residency.

Officials investigated 4,600 residence applications from couples since 2006 and found in 2,000 cases the non-EU national was illegal.

Gardai and Government officials had grown suspicious at the number of unlikely couples marrying here who could not even communicate with each other.

Figures obtained by the Irish Daily Mirror reveal the number of marriages between Latvians and Pakistanis, Bangladeshis or Indians soared overnight from zero before 2006, to 230 over the last two years.

A Justice Department analysis found 600 applications from Nigerians - the majority of them failed asylum seekers.

There were a further 600 applications - also an unusually high level from Pakistani nationals. Most of these were found to be students whose right to remain in Ireland was about to expire. Out of the 4,600 applications, 10 per cent of all the EU spouses were Latvians.

Of those, 50 per cent had married people from the Indian subcontinent, while only 39 per cent married people from countries closer to home such as Ukranians and Russians.

The Government said these marriages are so statistically unusual they could not have happened by chance. Immigration officials arranged for all the foreign nationals who had not fulfilled residency requirements to be deported.

But a group of four African men who had married EU citizens in Ireland successfully appealed their deportation to the European Court of Justice in July.

The fall-out from the Metock case - named after one of the men - has rocked the EU, with many countries believing it amounts to a licence for bogus marriage.

Justice ministers accept the European Court ruling was fair, but believe the Freedom of Movement laws must now be redrafted so that member states can enforce their own immigration policies.

Germany, Denmark, Austria, the Czech Republic and Ireland led calls for a quick solution to the problem at a meeting in Brussels yesterday.

Around 10 countries, also including the UK and Cyprus, backed plans for a new draft to be fast-tracked to bypass European Union red-tape.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern was not able to attend the meeting because of a political row with Fine Gael over pairing in the Dail.

EUR10,000 OFFERED TO EU LATVIANS LIVING IN IRELAND TO MARRY NON EU NATIONALS IN ORDER TO REMAIN HERE

600 BOGUS WEDDINGS HAVE TAKEN PLACE WHERE COUPLES DON'T SPEAK SAME LANGUAGE

2,000 COUPLES WERE FOUND TO BE ILLEGAL OUT OF 4,600 INVESTIGATED IN 2006
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/vi ... 55328.html

Justice ministers accept the European Court ruling was fair, but believe the Freedom of Movement laws must now be redrafted so that member states can enforce their own immigration policies.

Freedom of Movement laws seems to be being crammed down our throats in this country by the gangs of LaRaza and even Presidente Calderon.