ALMOST one in every ten civil weddings could be fake unions designed to evade immigration laws, according to a senior registrar.
A bride is led away by a UK Border Agency official following an alleged sham marriage
Mark Rimmer, who is chairman of the Local Registration Services Association, estimated that up to 15,000 of the 173,000 civil weddings in England and Wales could be fake and designed to evade immigration rules.
It comes as Home Office figures revealed 7,606 fake weddings were reported to them last year, but that just 90 people had been deported from the UK as a result of them.
Labour’s immigration spokesman, David Hanson, told the Daily Mail: “This record speaks for itself. More sham marriages and fewer deportations.
“People want the rules to be enforced, and these figures show the Government simply isn’t doing that.
“The Tories are stopping half the number of people at our borders, fewer people are being deported, fewer foreign criminals are leaving and fewer employers are being fined for employing illegal workers.
“The gap between David Cameron and Theresa May’s rhetoric and reality is stark.”
Delene Alouane, from Immigration Marriage Fraud UK, told the Daily Express that many British people were being “duped” into marrying foreigners who want the right to live in this country.
Men are more commonly susceptible to Thai, Filipino and Malaysian women, Ms Alouane said, while women are often flattered by men from Tunisia, Morocco and Gambia.
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shammarriage.jpg A bride is led away by a UK Border Agency official following an alleged sham marriage