Ten women from another EU member-state who were held at Larnaca airport on Sunday on arrival, after a tip-off that they were planning on entering into sham marriages in Cyprus, have already been sent back to their country, police said on Tuesday.
According to police deputy spokesman Stelios Stylianou, the 10 women, who arrived at Larnaca airport on Sunday from another European country, were sent home after being questioned. He said the authorities of the country from which the women arrived have been notified.
Stylianou told the Cyprus Mail the women were held at the airport and, after it was established that they were not human trafficking victims, they were sent back.
The case is also being investigated by Cypriot authorities, he said.
The government has been trying for years to clamp down on sham marriages usually between women from other EU countries and men from third countries.
Interior Minister Nikos Nouris told MPs last May that after such couples get married, often the third-country nationals, who register as spouses of a European citizen, leave Cyprus to go to other countries in Europe.
The issue has also concerned other EU countries – Romania, Portugal, and reportedly Latvia – that blamed Cyprus of not taking enough measures to clamp down on the sham marriage networks operating on the island and which exploit their citizens for sham marriages with third-country nationals.
The EU nationals who take part in the scam are paid a fraction of the money people from third countries pay while the networks usually pocket thousands of euros.
Last month, Nouris announced a raft of measures to curb the migration flow, including toughening entry rules for foreign students, clamping down on sham marriages and creating a list of 21 ‘safe countries’ whose nationals will not be considered for asylum.
Nouris had said that the government had prepared three law amendments to prevent sham marriages arguing that between 2017 and 2019, almost 4,000 sham marriages have been officiated, mostly from specific municipalities. The minister also said that between 2017 and 2019, around 2,200 people who arrived as students entered into marriages with European nationals which were justifiably deemed as sham marriages.
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