Analysis: Women marrying men in Ireland they had never met before

Gardaí are hopeful the paperwork needed to facilitate marriages of convenience will help to undo an international crime gang facilitating up to 20 such marriages each week for at least the last year.

Operation Vantage was established last August after the enactment of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014.

It gave gardaí the power to object to marriages they believed were bogus and were being used to secure legal status in the European Union for one of the parties, almost always the groom.

Immediately the provisions were enacted in August, the Garda began objecting to marriages and examining foreign criminals based in Ireland suspected of organising them. Piece by piece, the intelligence picture became clearer as it expanded.

Det Supt Stephen Courage of the Garda National Immigration Bureau said 1,000 suspect marriages were now being investigated.

Those behind the weddings were arranging for women from eastern Europe and Portugal to travel to Ireland to marry men from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Mauritius they had never met.

Once declared man and wife under Irish law, the men could apply through their European “spouses” to secure EU treaty rights, enabling them to live and work anywhere in Europe for the rest of their lives.

“The [men] would pay the facilitator the money up front,” Det Supt Courage said, adding that the women would come into the Republic three or four times to execute the scam for modest payments.

“The first journey would be to get a PPS number; the second would be to attend an interview with the registrar before the ceremony took place. And the third would be for the wedding ceremony itself. And finally she would come in to fill out the forms necessary for her husband to obtain EU treaty rights.”

Before the women could marry in Ireland and thus help their Asian “grooms” circumvent the immigration laws, they were required to furnish proof they were resident in Ireland. This was done by the facilitators producing fake documentation for the women, including pay slips from Irish shelf companies created for the purpose, as well as Irish household bills.

It was the premises where these were being produced that were raided yesterday.

“Without this history you cannot exercise your EU treaty rights,” said Det Supt Courage. “Generally the quality of the documents is quite good; to an international standard.”