British police, in cooperation with its immigration service, detained 10 people in the north-west of the UK on February 16, including several Slovak women and one man who are thought to belong to an international gang that organised fake weddings in order to help immigrants acquire British citizenship, the SITA newswire reported.
The raid, nick-named Razorback, involved the special unit of the British immigration police called the UK Border Agency (UKBA). Officers raided flats in Rotherham, Manchester and surroundings, SITA wrote, citing the Mediafax newswire. Those detained include seven Czech and Slovak women aged between 21 and 36, a Slovak man, 19, and a Pakistani man and woman, both 25. They all face prison and deportation.
Alisdair Duncan of the UKBA told the media that women from the European Union and other European countries helped foreigners to fake weddings in exchange for a fee, thus offering them an easier way to get permanent residence in the UK.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
