700 bogus couples wed here a year

AS many as 700 sham weddings take place here every year so foreign brides or grooms can get Irish r esi dency, t he country’s most senior marriage official said yesterday.

Registrar General Kieran Feely said there was growing concern among Government figures about the number of marriages for the sole purpose of gaining residency.

Joan Burton last week announced proposals to change the law to combat the abuse of marriage.

Mr Feely said he regularly encountered foreign couples who cannot speak the same language but who ask to be wed by his office.

‘Our educated guess would be there are around 600 to 700 sham marriages a year, which represents about three per cent of the total,’ Mr Feely said.

He said his office was powerless to stop marriages – even when it was clear the couple barely knew each other or had met just before registration.

Suspect registrations typically involve EU citizens from outside Ireland marrying a person from outside Europe, he said.

Mr Feely told RTÉ Radio’s This Week how criminal gangs were involved in organising sham marriages.

He said: ‘There is great concern at all levels in Government at the abuse of our system, the abuse of our marriage registration system, the abuse of our immigration system, the criminality that surrounds this and the exploita- tion of vulnerable women and possible trafficking as well.

‘All of those issues are never far behind this phenomenon.’

He revealed how those behind sham marriages were blatant in their abuse of the system.

Mr Feely said: ‘You could have someone ringing up who wants to make an appointment with a registrar to give notice of intention to marry and the registrar asks, “What’s the spouse’s name?” and he [the caller] might say, “I don’t know yet”.’

The Social Protection Minister aims to amend the Civil Registration Act to

‘They often don’t know bride’s name’

give greater powers to registrars, allowing them alert gardaí if they suspect the system is being abused.

Garda action and the introduction of marriage notifications has already led to a decline in sham marriages.

Last year, 2,086 EU and non-EU couples gave notification of intention to marry but only 80 per cent went ahead, compared to almost 99 per cent of Irish couples, the Registrar General’s annual report said.

‘The low rate of conversion... would suggest that marriages of convenience are a significant problem,’ it stated.