(Barbados Nation) – Government is being urged to close a legal loophole to prevent non-nationals from fraudulently gaining Barbadian citizenship through marriages of convenience.

The Immigration Department said it is concerned about the number of “obvious marriages of convenience” where non-nationals marry Barbadians in order to gain entitlement to citizenship or permanent residence.

“This problem manifests itself in the following ways: either the non-national spouse leaves the marriage before consummation or having divorced, applies for some form of status for a new (non-national) spouse,” it said.

“There are strong suspicions that some Barbadian nationals are being paid to participate in these marriages of convenience.”

The department’s views are contained in the Green Paper on immigration reform laid in Parliament recently.

It said there were several examples of non-nationals who divorced non-national spouses, then married Barbadians whom they divorced at the earliest opportunity, in order to remarry their previous spouse.

“They are then entitled to pass citizenship on to that spouse and can obtain status for any non-Barbadian children from that union,” the department said.

“It is recommended that the legislation should be amended to stipulate that such persons should not benefit from this fraudulent act, and that citizenship will be refused in such cases.”

The department noted that prior to the 2000 constitutional amendment, non-national women married to Barbadian men were entitled to citizenship by virtue of marriage, whereas non-national males married to Barbadian females by birth or descent were only entitled to permanent residence.