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SHAM MARRIAGES ARE widespread in Ireland, with hundreds of non-EU, mainly Asian men paying to marry vulnerable eastern European women to secure EU residency, according to a report.
Many of the women involved have been trafficked to Ireland, the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) study found.
Last November, Gardaí arrested 11 members of an international gang based in Dublin after an operation last November targeting gangs profiting from sham marriages.
The gang charged men from Asian countries, including Pakistan, India and Mauritius, between €10,000 and €20,000 each to marry women from eastern Europe and Portugal.
The landmark report, compiled over two years, concludes sham marriages are an emerging form of exploitation of female victims by organised criminal groups in Ireland.
It documented hundreds of cases where women travelled from Latvia to Ireland and soon after married men from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
“At present, those exploited in sham marriage situations are not defined as victims of human trafficking,” said Brian Killoran, chief executive of the ICI.
“However, this research project came about because service-providers and consular services were noticing increased instances of vulnerable women being exploited, abused and trapped with deception in marriages involving EU and non-EU nationals.
In many such incidents, there were strong indicators of trafficking.
These include a highly organised system of targeting, recruiting and exploiting vulnerable young women. There is also evidence of deception and control; movement across borders; appalling experiences of physical and psychological abuse; and incidents of rape, sexual abuse and enforced domestic servitude.
Over 100
Nusha Yonkova, anti-trafficking manager with the Immigrant Council, told TheJournal.ie that the victims were typically vulnerable girls with little English, many hialing from extremely impoverished eastern European backgrounds.
The report found, in all cases examined, the female victims had a connection with their recruiter, who was a family member, friend or friend of the family in the origin country.
The numbers of sham marriages rose in the period covered by the report. In 2014, 101 sham marriages took place, 90 in 2013 and 87 in 2012.
In 2009, there were 357 such marriages involving Latvian women in Ireland, according to the report. The Latvian embassy has expressed concern.
The report said the system for identifying if women were trafficked was “flawed”.
Operation Vantage
A year ago, the Garda National Immigration Bureau launched Operation Vantage to investigate illegal immigration, and identify “sham marriages” – that is, a marriage involving foreign national that is solely for the purpose of securing safe immigration.
To date, gardaí have arrested 63 people who have either been prosecuted, are before the courts or have been removed from the State. Gardaí estimate sham marriages have been reduced by 75% by Operation Vantage.
Last year, the total number of asylum applications more than doubled compared to 2014, up by 127%, according to the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner.
Gardaí say they saw a spike in lost passports from certain nationalities in the first seven months of last year – 714 from persons of Pakistani nationality alone compared to 236 for the entire year 2014.
Applications for EU Treaty Rights and residency also nearly doubled in 2015, from 3,230 applications in 2014 to 5,996 in 2015. Again, this was mainly down to a large increase from certain Asian countries, Gardaí said.
Applications from Pakistani nationals increased from 683 applicants in 2014 to 1,920 in 2015. Applications from Afghani nationals increased from 68 applicants in 2014 to 881 applicants in 2015.
In the first seven months of last year, a total of 784 marriages took place between non-Irish EU nationals, and non-EU nationals.
Over a third (36%) involved Pakistani nationals, followed by Indian nationals at 12% and Bangladeshi nationals at 8%.
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This has been going on for many years but I’ve yet to see any virtue signalling Facebook or The Journal profile pictures displaying the DR Congo flag.
@Dan Broderick: That might be because Ukraine is a fellow European country, that more directly affects us, we have more of an affiliation with their plight; we host 60,000 Ukrainian refugees and we see the effects of the war daily on TV news and websites. It more directly affects us, regardless which side we favour.
And I suspect if we were to look at Facebook profiles of Congolese people from the region, and other peoples of neighbouring African countries, near were this massacre happened, I wouldn’t be surprised if they lack Ukraine flags but display various indications of Tutsi and Hutu support, they might not be directory involved but have a side they support, because their neighbours got massacred this time or previously (ca. 5.4 million dead though war and famine in the last 25 years or so). What do you think?
I suppose it would be virtue signalling if Irish people started showing Hutu flags in or Hutus started showing Ukraine flag in their profiles. But that’s not what is happening.
@Dan Broderick: careful now, you’ll have your comment deleted. Seems the journal delete every comment they don’t like! Censorship deprives the public from perspective
@John White: Does it?
@John White: https://jrnl.ie/5938495
@Gavin Conran: there’s a big difference in deleting comments that are factual and not identifying anyone in particular vs making hurtful accusations against an individual, guilty or not it’s for the courts to decide. That’s not what I’m disputing, I have had multiple comments deleted that were PC and factual as have many others.
The UN are a complete waste of space.
@Mike Dunne: fully agree.
animals
@joe doyle: animals are far and away better than these so called human beings.
@joe doyle: Animals, financed by the biggest conglomerates in the World. The Congo was plundered by Belgium before independence only to be replaced by big business. The Congo is blessed or plagued by the minerals that’s found there. Our mobile phones work because of Cobalt which is mined in the Congo. Diamonds Gold are just a few of the resources that is fought over in proxy wars in the Congo.
The Gov in the Congo uses the Russian mercenary group, Wagner, as it’s security force and a sister company holds most of the mineral mining rights as payment. Be very careful before you jump to any conclusions about events in Congo!
@Liam Dunne: The use of mercenaries in the Congo since it’s Independence has been the norm. South Africa has been a major source for mercenaries funded by Western Big business. The last thing the conglomerates want is the Division of the Congo to unite and have a stable government. Kinshasa broke away from the rest of the Congo after Independence, It was the richest part of the Congo in minerals etc. They had no problem in using mercenaries from Europe, Rhodesia,South Africa paid for by mining companies. Nothing has changed. The mineral wealth of the Congo makes it a battle ground for proxy wars.
They are worse than animals. Savages. With no civil or human morals. There has to be something that can be done with savages like these that are slaughtering innocent villages of people just trying to live their lives. They should be massacred themselves. Them and their ilk raping children and babies as a tool of their power. Big power with their machetes and machine guns. An absolute disgrace that this is still going on and there are Supposedly UN troops designed to tackle these so call armies. Why is this still happening. There are too many movies made from actual events and record of these events throughout the years and they make for disturbing viewing and yet even though acknowledged, there is more and more still allowed to happen without proper intervention from powers that be. SADLY
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