Solution to sham marriages goes beyond a visa

growing problem that cries out for effective solutions.
Immigration authorities have been clamping down on those patently in Zimbabwe illegally, those who came as tourists and stayed on, those who lied about their investments, those who were on temporary permits and did not go home when these expired.

So now a growing number of people are seeking a marriage with a Zimbabwean, and thus gain an absolute right to stay in the country.
We hear of people who put a Zimbabwean on salary, to go through a wedding.
We hear of people who are paid as little as US$10 to do the same.

These couples do not live together, and although technically legally married, are not married in any normal sense of the word.
Zimbabweans have the right to marry whom they want to, and must retain the legal right to live in Zimbabwe with their spouse. That is the law and no one really wants to argue with that.
Many Zimbabweans have married foreigners in their travels or while in the diaspora, and of course, they must be allowed to bring their wives or husbands home should they wish.

But we also need a way to separate out those who enter marriages of convenience, without making life a misery for those Zimbabweans and their foreign spouses who are genuinely married.
This is not just a Zimbabwean problem.
Immigration authorities around the world are faced with the special difficulties of the marriage of convenience. The ordinary illegal immigrant can be hunted down, even when he hides, and deported.

But the foreign spouse in a marriage of convenience can stand in the bright sunlight waving genuine residence papers, and who is to tell his marriage is just a paper marriage.
Well a lot can be done. The British, as some Zimbabweans who tried to enter that country legally through a fake marriage have found out, have found out to their cost.

First the foreign spouse needs a visa, and must apply for that visa from his or her own country; you cannot just marry while on holiday in Britain and expect to stay.
The British spouse has to prove the couple has suitable accommodation; that they can live without having to touch the welfare state, and that generally the foreigner is not going to be a leech on the British taxpayer.

Sometimes that visa is not too difficult to get. A couple married for a decade can normally get it without hassle. But sometimes the visa is harder to obtain; a couple who apply the day after a foreign marriage will be in for a more torrid time.

But that visa is just for a year. The couple has to reapply before it expires, and the authorities can, and if they are at all suspicious will, check that the couple does indeed live together.
The new visa is also for a year, as is the third one.

Only after seeing the couple live for three years together, under the same roof, as man and wife will the authorities concede that the marriage is totally genuine, so genuine that even if there is a later divorce the foreign spouse is usually allowed to stay.

Zimbabwe needs to do something similar with temporary visas for the first few years and a willingness to send an immigration officer to check the given address and, if suspicious, quiz the neighbours.

Short simple investigations, each lasting just one hour a year, will quickly winnow out the innocent with minimal loss of privacy while creating a list of those so-called couples who warrant further investigation.

It regrettably appears at the moment that the immigration authorities tend to hear of suspicious marriages only when the Zimbabwean spouse comes forward, either because they were paid too little or because they now want a genuine marriage with someone else and have to clear the decks first.

We need to remember who has the rights. In Zimbabwe it is the Zimbabwean citizen or permanent resident who has the right to have their foreign spouse living with them. The foreign spouse does not have any right, as an individual, to live in Zimbabwe.

And it is crucial to note that the Zimbabwean’s right is to have the spouse living with them, not wandering around the country trying to remember the name of the person they paid US$10 to in order to get a residence permit. Perhaps other systems to vet the foreign spouse will prove better and cheaper than what we suggest.

But let us start putting something effective into place that will allow Zimbabweans with genuine marriages to foreigners to live at home in peace, and will stop the marriages of convenience that cause so much harm.