admin
BRUSSELS. — The number of marriages in Belgium involving foreign nationals fell by about 25 percent in 2013 owing to a government clampdown on bogus weddings, according to Le Soir yesterday. According to figures released by the Foreign Office, 7 300 weddings were stopped last year because one spouse only wanted to be married in order to gain a residence permit.
This is a decrease of 25 percent compared to the previous year. “It’s encouraging. The plan seems to be working,” the Secretary of State for Immigration Current Affairs, Maggie De Block, was quoted as saying.
The number of marriages deemed suspicious by the authorities has been on the increase since 2004, and mainly focus on the Moroccan, Algerian and Turkish communities, according to Le Soir.
The number of suspicious marriages fell from 9064 in 2012 to 7 278 in 2013. — Xinhua.
Online Reporter