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MARRIAGE

Fraudulent marriages to obtain residency spike in Spain

An increasing number of foreigners are attempting to gain residency in Spain through fake marriages of convenience that authorities can easily lift the lid on. 

Published: 25 April 2022 15:57 CEST
Fraudulent marriages to obtain residency spike in Spain
Some foreigners are willing to take the risk of potentially being caught in a fraudulent in order for the benefits being married to an EU national can bring in Spain. (Photo by Ernesto BENAVIDES / AFP)

Any fan of 90s romcoms may be familiar with the film Green Card, which sees an undocumented French migrant in New York played by Gérard Depardieu marry an American (Andie McDowell) in order for him to have his slice of the American dream, only for them to predictably fall madly in love.

Here in Spain, marriages of convenience have seen an “exponential rise” in recent years according to the Central Unit of Illegal Immigration Networks and Fake Documents (Ucrif), and for those who get caught it’s no laughing matter. 

Faking a marriage or civil union isn’t generally classified as a crime in Spain, which means that the bogus couple are unlikely to end up behind bars, but it is still considered a fraudulent act that can carry fines of between €500 and €10,000, according article 53.2B of Spain’s migration law.

Nevertheless, in recent years an increasing number of non-EU citizens are striking deals with Spanish or other EU nationals in Spain as a surefire way of obtaining residency in the country and acquiring practically the same rights as a Spaniard. 

Individuals may be willing to accept the offer of a fake union, whether it’s to help a migrant out, for mutual convenience or financial gain.

But faking marriages or civil unions has now been absorbed as another illicit practice by criminal gangs in Spain’s major cities.

In 2020, Europol reported how Spanish National Police arrested 12 suspected members of a sham marriage network which facilitated illegal immigration into the EU by setting up partnerships of convenience.

The following year, a priest in Murcia was handed a 20-month prison sentence for carrying our at least 16 bogus weddings.

In February 2022, another gang was arrested in Catalonia for charging migrants for fake civil union partners.

Migrants usually pay between €3,000 and €7,000 for these illegal wedding agencies to find them a partner and to organise the union.

As civil partnerships (parejas de hecho) are generally simpler to carry out than marriages, this has been the preferred modus operandi, and may be one of the reasons why civil unions rose exponentially in Spain from a total of 1.6 million in 2018 to 1.8 million in 2020.

READ ALSO: Civil union or marriage in Spain: which one is better?

It’s not illegal for a non-resident third-country national to marry an EU resident in Spain and gain residency like this. 

And although love is not a prerequisite for such a union to take place, living under the same roof is.

If a Spanish civil servant suspects that the relationship isn’t real, they can contact police to conduct a check at the address provided, or an interview with the alleged couple. 

“When there are suspicions, interviews are carried out during which they ask you a lot of details about the other person, and if you don’t live with them, you don’t pass the test ,” migration lawyer Antonio Segura told La Vanguardia.

Despite the risk it can entail, some migrants without the residency documents needed to live and work without problems in Spain see the civil union as the fastest way to resolve their issues and take the risk anyway. 

“You have to put yourself in people’s situation,” Segura argues.

“I understand that it’s a mistake to fake a marriage but undocumented migrants can sometimes be here for years without documents, they’re scared of being stopped by police, they’re imprisoned in Spain and can’t fly back to see their families until they’re granted residency through years spent in Spain, they can’t work legally in Spain.”

READ ALSO: How can non-residents or new arrivals get married in Spain?

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FARMING

Spain farmers jailed for illegal water tapping at nature reserve

Five siblings have been jailed for more than three years for illegally extracting water from an aqueduct feeding a UNESCO-listed Spanish nature reserve that is threatened by desertification, a court ruling showed.

Published: 23 September 2023 09:34 CEST
Spain farmers jailed for illegal water tapping at nature reserve

The five farmers – four men and a woman – were found guilty of crimes against the environment and causing damage for “putting the ecosystem at serious risk through the “systematic and extensive extraction” of water supplying Donana National Park, said the ruling dated September 18th that was seen by AFP on Friday.

One of Europe’s largest fauna-rich wetlands, Donana is located in the southern Andalusia region.

If confirmed by a higher court, it would be the first ruling to involve a jail sentence for illegally tapping water from Donana, a site that has become a symbol of the growing scarcity of water in Spain sparking fierce political debate, El Pais newspaper said.

The siblings were found guilty of extracting 19 million cubic litres of water for their Hato Blanco Viejo ranch over a five-year period between 2008 and 2013, leaving the groundwater reserves in “poor condition” and causing permanent lagoons to become seasonal due to the lower water levels, it said.

The defendants, who have been slapped with more than a dozen fines for water-related issues since the last 1990s, must also pay 2.0 million euros ($2.1 million) in compensation to the Guadalquivir Water Authority, the public body responsible for local water management.

READ ALSO: Illegal water use dries out key Spanish lagoon

They have also been banned from cultivating crops for two years.

Vote due on controversial water bill

Donana, whose diverse ecosystem of lagoons, marshes, forests and dunes stretch across 100,000 hectares, is on the migratory route of millions of birds each year and is home to many rare species such as the Iberian lynx.

But the park has been struggling due to an ongoing drought and is also threatened by intensive agriculture in the area.

Despite warnings from UNESCO and the European Commission, Andalusia’s right-wing regional government is pushing to extend irrigation rights near the park, with a draft law seeking to regularise berry farms that are currently irrigated by illegal wells.

READ ALSO: Spain’s parties seek out ‘drought votes’ ahead of general election

The bill will be put to a vote in the coming weeks and if it passes, environmental groups warn it could legitimise 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of crops, jeopardising the future of this UNESCO-listed reserve that is threatened by desertification.

In that instance, Spain’s left-wing government has pledged to appeal while UNESCO has warned that the law could see the park lost its status as a protected World Heritage site.

The draft bill played a key role in the political campaigning earlier this year ahead of local polls in May and a general election in July in a country where 80 percent of water resources are ploughed into agriculture, Spain is the world’s biggest exporter of olive oil and the European Union’s biggest producer of fruit and vegetables.

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