Britain clamps down on sham marriages

SOURCE: BBC (Figures correct as at 2002) • Canada denies asylum to Zim woman fleeing Muslim hubby • Britain still the land of honey for Zimbabweans • Churches lobby SA on asylum

By Staff Reporter

HUNDREDS of Zimbabweans face arrest or deportation from Britain after the government announced drastic new measures to curb ‘sham marriages’ and hunt down truant students who use their visas to enter the UK.

The home secretary, David Blunkett, promised action to clamp down on those who use sham marriages and non-existent language school courses to evade immigration laws.

The announcement came after the second Downing Street "immigration summit" since the resignation of the Home Office minister Beverley Hughes over migration schemes in Eastern Europe.

Blunkett said the measures on marriages and students had been in the pipeline for several months.

He attacked commentators who claimed that Britain's migration problems could be resolved with a "big bang" introduction of ID cards.

He said that the Home Office would look more closely at the cases of the 300,000 students who come to study each year, as there was evidence of a growing scam involving alleged private adult colleges providing non-existent language courses.

"The vast majority of the students who come here are bona fide. It could be just a few thousand who are involved, but that is enough to undermine trust and confidence," he said. The Home Office intends to launch immediate checks on all claimed educational establishments and, by the end of the year, set up an accreditation and monitoring scheme for all colleges.

Student visas will not be granted to colleges that are not on the list. Colleges will also be required to inform the Home Office when students do not turn up for courses.

"Students from overseas contribute £3bn a year to our economy," Blunkett said. "It is important that we protect this business and that these students continue to see education in our country as world class. But we also have to ensure that this system is not abused."

The drive against sham marriages, meanwhile, will allow only designated register offices to authorise marriages involving foreign nationals.

A change in the law is also envisaged to allow registrars to refuse to marry couples they suspect. Asked for an estimate of how many such marriages take place every year, the home secretary said: "We don't think there is anything like the 15,000 that have been outlined, but we think there are more than the 3,000 we have been aware of."

Hundreds of Zimbabweans have married British nationals in the hope of getting citizenship status, or getting permission to go in and out of the AUK without the need for visas.

If the new measures are implemented, many will be refused to marry or simply arrested and deported.

Blunkett has published draft legislation detailing how his proposed national identity card scheme will work.

Meanwhile a police operation targeting suspected sham marriages led to 10 arrests last week.

Hertfordshire police and the Immigration Service made the arrests at Dacorum register office in Hemel Hempstead. A police spokesman said the operation had prevented two marriages from taking place.

Seven men and three women were arrested, charged with offences under the Immigration Act.
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