http://www.independent.ie/national-news/836410000-bogus-marriage-offer-for-latvian-girls-1372358.html
€10,000 bogus marriage offer for Latvian girls
Immigrants in cash-for-wedding licence scam
By JIM CUSACK
Sunday May 11 2008

POOR, young Latvian women are being lured to Ireland with promises of up to
€10,000 to "marry" illegal immigrants here, men mainly from Pakistan, most of
whom are believed to have wives back in their home countries.

Adverts have been placed in Latvia and, it is believed other Baltic states,
seeking women to come to Ireland to marry illegal immigrants over the past two
years.

One advert in Latvia stated: "Young unmarried women wanted. Women who would
agree to help Indian guys in Dublin with registering marriage on paper
(fictitious marriage, popular in Dublin nowadays).

"Everything will be covered, plus you get €1,000, plus room rent covered, plus
work offered, plus pocket money, plus course (professional, language) plus other
benefits. Also plane ticket costs will be covered. All this is legal!."

Although the advert claimed that "Indian" men were involved, investigations into
such marriages by the Garda National Bureau of Investigation (GNIB) found that
those involved are all from Pakistan.

A journalist from Latvian newspaper Diena who posed as a possible bride, replied
by email to the advert and received a reply stating: "When arriving in Ireland
this marriage is not registered right away but only after 3-6 months not
earlier, because in Ireland all 'paper formalities' take very long time and
after you have submitted an application you must wait for another 3-6 months
until that marriage.

"A fictitious marriage is registered, it is a marriage on paper. With this the
Indian guy may stay in the territory of Ireland legally because he has
registered his marriage with EU citizen. This allows him to stay in Ireland
permanently.

"It does not cost anything for the person who is helping, also stamps are not
put in passports any more, passport stays clean. Then this marriage is
registered in local Irish computer, not in Latvian register. Marriage agreement/
contract is signed and cancelled after a year. No obligations from both sides.
This is just a formality. And it is legal process. At present it is a rather
popular thing in Ireland (also in other countries eg England, Switzerland and
others." the reply said.

"Living conditions are the following -- living in apartments that are shared
with other workers. Salary is around €1,500 to €2,000 per month, besides all
money stays in your pocket as you do not have to pay for anything (unlike other
workers who spend about half of their salary on room, rent, transport etc)," the
replying email stated. Last year GNIB found that 500 of 3,000 applications by
non-Irish married couples to live here were from failed asylum seekers and that
a significant number of others involved arranged marriages with young women from
the Baltic states who had replied to the adverts. Gardai also found that 400 of
the applications to reside in Ireland based on marriage to an EU citizen were
from Pakistanis.

The Department of Justice's Immigration department last year refused 279 of
these applicants leave to remain here despite their claims of rights of
residence because of marriage to an EU citizen. Immigration "rights" groups last
year criticised the Department's decision to refuse leave to some of these men
to remain here.

The Latvian authorities are apparently amazed at Ireland's lax controls over
arranged or bogus marriages.

Last month, Latvian police said that they have been informed by the garda that
such "marriages" are "not a crime" in Ireland.

The Head of the State Police Organised Crime Enforcement Department, Arturs
Vaisla, told the Diena newspaper: "There are countries that treat such cases
irresponsibly. If it had happened here we could have put them in prison."

- JIM CUSACK