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Updated at 3pm
NEW MEASURES HAVE been introduced to prevent marriages of convenience taking place in Ireland.
From today the Office of the Registrar General has been given more extensive powers to prevent the institution of marriage being abused for immigration purposes.
In recent years trends have emerged that indicate ‘sham marriages’ are on the rise in Ireland.
These marriages consist of a non-EEA national marrying someone from within the EU for the purpose of having their permission to remain in the country extended.
An unexpectedly high occurrence rate of marriages between women from Eastern Europe and Portugal, and men from the Indian subcontinent has been noted.
What sorts of new powers will be in place?
The Registrar will now have the power to to investigate a couple prior to agreeing to a marriage.
Basing its opinion on evidence available from both parties, the body has the right to refuse a marriage registration form if they feel that a marriage is not legitimate.
The Registrar can then report information to the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service of the Department of Justice and Equality.
Reaction
Speaking today, Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, said:
In addition to EU Free Movement rights, the right to marry in Ireland is also protected in the Constitution. The reality is though, that in some cases these rights are abused. The abuse of the institution of marriage, for immigration purposes, cannot and will not be tolerated.
The Minister went on to say that she was concerned that sham marriages were leading to a proliferation of women being trafficked into Ireland for this purpose.
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Tuam,Co Galway good few shams getting about that town.
Lol…Reminds me of the movie The Proposal.
A lad from knock bridge in Dundalk done this recently he made a complete gobs*hte off himself when he forgot the new wife’s name in an interview …
oh please, crack down on sham marriages! all they had to do was to listen to the people that tipped them off with concrete facts!! but of course the “sham” was left go ahead because everyone was afraid to challenge it!
while i agree with sgt pepper, you need your facts to be correct.
we have left every loophole in the system go unchecked and its a case now of ” closing the gate when the horse has bolted”!!
It’s very easy to find a sham marriage because the bride don’t know the name of the groom .
@ denise friary well said, did you ever see it as she walks up to the registrar and doesnt know which guy it is!! the look on her face is priceless!
Think my marriage was a sham.
must be at least 15 years too late
25?
You’d want to be absolutely sure a marriage was a con job IMO if you’re going to bust them on the big day. I’ve seen that in UK immigration programmes and they don’t always get it right.
all part of the job, nobody gets hurt and they’ll make it that way so no claims are made for such ‘inconvenience’. if you or i are asked in for questioning about a crime, you can’t sue the state while they’re carrying out their duty. better tie that one down as they live in every ear of the loophole.
I thought we had a referendum on sham marriages back in May and legalised them.
Ooh bitchy!
John Tierney@ GOOd one love it!!
You and the rest of the haters lost John. Get over it.
hahhh very good
“You and the rest of the haters lost John. ”
Says he with the hate flag emblazoned across his avatar.
Ah poor TheoWolfe. He doesn’t know the difference between the flag of freedom to love and the flag of hate. And he himself the personification of all that is hateful.
fg and labour that marriage is definitely a sham
What about the “men” who declare their love for a woman and promises her the world! Marries her gets her pregnant, gets his citizenship and then leaves her??? Plenty of this going on in Ireland today and it’s the woman left holding the baby!!! These men are getting away with this everyday!!!
I think a lot of countries deport them if that happens. I know Canada used to, but then there were cases where “wives” were being trafficked here into abusive households (not necessarily the husband, as often as not the mother in law is the abuser) who told her she would lose her residency if she left. The law was emended recently to account for cases of abuse so bought wives wouldn’t get kicked out of the country.
It’s a two way street Noelle.
When residency and citizenship are on the table, people will lie.
Paul I dont agree that’s it’s a two way thing at all!! I’m talking about an Irish woman falling head over heels with a foreign national! Made to believe he feels the same way! Agrees to marry him! Has his baby/babies and then finds out he is a fraud!
gate , horse and bolted come to mind
Walked along the banks of the Shannon in Limerick the other evening near the new bridge, it’s beginning to look the banks of the Nile, BMOSs (black moving objects in tents!) everywhere!
Seriously, wasn’t this a thing 15 years ago and they’re only responding now?
going on for years and ye knew about it, never did anything about it then nor will do anything about it now but pretend to be doing something about it now. Why would ye? Isn’t this what ye want? Course, just pretend to be doing something about it while ye flood the place. Thousands have got in here through that sham. There should be a way to take those passports back since ye are so good at investigating welfare fraud in some oddly misplaced fashion.
The gay marriage one will be hard to police???
Watch out daniel o donnell
Over 10 years ago I informed the Registrar General of my own sham marriage. I purportedly “married” a divorcee in a Catholic ceremony of marriage where false and perjurous paperwork had been supplied to the District Registrar.
The result is that I now find myself “divorced” from somebody who does not exist and a very long wait for action from the Registrar Generals office.
Here’s the rub.
The details on the “marriage” certificate were falsified to give the impression that the other party was a spinster, with her former married name used as her identity and her fathers name was altered to reflect this. So if you were to look for a birth certificate for that person, you would never find one, because they were never born.
The proposed Register of Divorces (Civil Registration Act, 2004) requires the birth surnames of both parties to be entered on the register – but this has not yet been commenced.
Perhaps those busy people in Roscommon might now think about how they can address the issue.
Totally lost me.
Ask yourself this question Jane.
If somebody knows they entered into a sham marriage, how does that make a subsequent divorce valid?
Its simple enough Jane. As per usual Paul is looking for attention not realizing that his attempts to make him self appear intelligent with his vague statements are having the opposed effect by highlighting his stupidity.
James,
I know this might be hard for you to comprehend, but I actually named a State Agency in an open post on an issue for which they have some responsibility and it is relevant to the main story.
If the Registrar General had acted 10 years ago, I might not have been put through the inconvenience of a “divorce” on a sham marriage.
As it stands, they did nothing – not even informing the Gardaí. Which is ironic, because when I informed the Gardaí, I had to wait over 7 years to get a letter from them indicating that the DPP considers fraud to be a matter for family law courts.
I’m searching for the precedent that would explain that. Can you think of the relevant case, James?
As it stands it looks like I’m claiming the state sat back and did nothing while a fraud and perjury was brought through a secret court, and now the state expect me to identify myself as being “divorced” while they choose to ignore the truth.
If your your marriage was a sham marriage it was never a real marriage in the first place. Where a real marriage doesn’t exist in reality but dose on paper the marriage is null and void. One would think that a person of intellect would have sought annulment of the marriage and not a divorce Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place.
just a out time. and Yeh many of these will take advantage from the Gay marriage and already are.
The immigration releases cards on civil partnerships as well. Who controls that? No one.
What about the FG/Stickie union?
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