The men lying about being beaten by their wives... to stay in UK
FOREIGN fraudsters are masquerading as victims of domestic violence to trick officials into letting them stay in Britain.
Campaigners say hundreds of Britons, including a growing number of women, are being exploited by con artists who dupe them into marriage abroad – with the sole aim of returning to the UK to claim permanent resident status.
Once in Britain they pretend to be victims of domestic violence and use a loophole to fast-track residency applications.
The Mail on Sunday has seen evidence in a series of cases where foreign men have been allowed to stay in the UK after fabricating claims of domestic abuse – even when their wives have been cleared.
Three years ago, a report found the number of foreigners applying to stay in the UK as victims of domestic abuse had soared from 59 in 2002 to 1,224 in 2015.
Campaigners say they are now receiving reports of fabricated domestic abuse claims by those seeking to stay in the UK at the rate of one every day. Cases seen by this newspaper include an adulterous foreign spouse who hauled his wife through the courts on domestic abuse allegations and has been allowed to remain in the UK.
In another case, a specialist cancer nurse and mother-of-two was brought to the brink of suicide by her already-married Iranian husband taking her to court on false abuse claims.
Yet another case involved a British woman who was raped by her already-married Pakistani husband who then claimed she had raped him.
All allegations against her were dropped but he was granted permanent residency on the basis of being a victim.
Under current immigration rules, foreigners who marry Britons have to wait five years before they are granted permanent rights to live and work in the UK.
However, rules known as the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession mean that, if the foreign spouse claims their partner has been abusive, Home Office officials are bound to consider their case and can award them Indefinite Leave To Remain (ILR) in as little as three months.
Even if they do not get ILR, fraudsters will often allege domestic abuse to delay efforts to deport them.
The report in 2015 by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration highlighted alarming failures by Home Office when it came to staff checking the validity of domestic abuse claims.
Investigators found that case workers relied too heavily on unverified evidence, such as letters from domestic violence charities, rather than interviewing the applicant themselves.
An analysis of 25 cases where approval to remain had been granted found the decision in 15 had been wrong and that in 16 cases, no approach for information about the abuse allegations had been made to police.
Kim Sow, from the victim support group Immigration Marriage Fraud Consultancy, established in 2013 to monitor cases and help victims, said: ‘No fraudster should be left unpunished and no victim of fraud should have their lives totally destroyed by an unfair, unjust and discriminatory process. If the Home Office, police and prosecutors continue failing to address the issue of immigration marriage fraud, an open door remains for fraudsters to enter the UK.’
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘We take all allegations of immigration abuse very seriously and all cases will be thoroughly investigated.
‘However our priority will always be to safeguard victims of domestic abuse.’
‘Alarming failures by Home Office staff’ ‘Open door remains for fraudsters to enter UK’