EU free movement rule 'exploited'

SOME 4,600 people applied for Irish residency in the past two years on the grounds that their spouses were EU citizens from outside Ireland, including some 600 each from Nigeria and Pakistan, according to Department of Justice figures.

In a document presented to EU justice ministers in Brussels yesterday to show that Ireland faced a problem with "marriages of convenience", the Government pointed to the high rate of marriage between Latvians and immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. Ten per cent of all applications were from Latvians, and 50 per cent of them were married to Pakistani, Indian or Bangladeshi nationals, figures that were "so statistically abnormal that they cannot have occurred by chance".

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0926/1222374595413.html

€10,000 bogus marriage offer for Latvian girls

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.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/836410000-bogus-marriage-offer-for-latvian-girls-1372358.html