European Ruling Leads To Surge In Sham Weddings In The UK

THE Home Office is examining ways to tackle a surge in the number of sham marriages between European Union citizens and migrants seeking to stay in Britain.

Some areas have reported huge rises in bogus weddings since a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2010 forced the government to drop safeguards intended to prevent them.

In Wandsworth, southwest London, there has been a sixfold increase in the number of sham marriages, with 94 detected last year compared to 16 in 2010-11.

A council spokesman said: “Since the ECHR ruling that removed the important safeguards that were in place to deter sham marriages, we have seen a fairly dramatic increase in these cases . . . it is clear that many more people are now attempting to use marriage as a way of side-stepping immigration controls.”