Police in Portugal, Belgium break up sham marriages ring


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — The European Union's law enforcement agency says authorities in Belgium and Portugal have dismantled a gang suspected of organizing sham marriages between mostly Portuguese women and Pakistani men.

Europol says in a statement Tuesday the men were seeking to obtain residence rights in the European Union and the women were paid several thousand euros (dollars) to marry them.

After tying the knot in Portugal, the couples moved to Belgium where they used apparently bogus companies to obtain welfare benefits and legal rights. The statement did not say why Belgium was the chosen destination.

Europol says police arrested 17 suspects in Belgium — where it also found 43 people it described as "irregular migrants" — and three in Portugal.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent World stories

Related topics

World
The Associated Press

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast