'Outside EU migrants using 'back-door' to gain UK citizenship'

Migrants from outside the European Union have been using back-door routes, including sham marriages, to gain British citizenship, according to a new UK government probe.
According to a report by the chief inspector of borders and immigration, sham marriages to EU citizens living in Britain are growing as non-Europeans try to get round UK government controls.
"Our findings suggest that the European citizenship route is becoming an increasingly important way into the UK for those whose origins lie outside the European Economic Area (EEA), particularly now that the immigration rules have been tightened," chief inspector John Vine said in his report.

"Attempted abuse by non-EEA nationals applying on the basis of sham marriage or civil partnership with a European citizen was significant," he said.
According to 'The Times', in almost 25 per cent of the sample cases where a non-EU national applied for a British residence card as the spouse or civil partner of an EU citizen, he or she was from Nigeria followed by Pakistan, Ghana, Algeria, Brazil, Ukraine and Bangladesh.
These countries were high on the list of suspected sham marriages.

Migrants often applied for a residence card in Britain on the basis of marriage or a civil partnership with a citizen from another EU state, the report said.

Vine also warned of increasing abuse of overseas proxy marriages, at which neither party is present but are represented by family members, as another way of getting round immigration laws.
More than 80 per cent of a sample of 29 proxy marriages proved to be invalid.
But few of those caught are prosecuted unless criminal gangs are involved and many thwart attempts to remove them from the country by lodging appeals, the report said.
Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, which campaigns for lower immigration, said: "This a very serious loophole in our immigration system which can be exploited by thousands of bogus applicants. It is yet another issue to be renegotiated.