OTTAWA, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Immigrants are still using fake marriages to enter Canada three years after the issue arose, official documents show.
In February 2007, Citizenship and Immigration Canada ordered an investigation of "the high number of potential fraud cases related to possible marriages of convenience" in the Punjab region in India, according to internal documents the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. got under the Access to Information Act.
CIC was receiving complaints from people who had married foreigners and paid for them to enter Canada, only to have them leave the marriage upon arrival. Some spouses took off as soon as they landed.
The investigation also found ties to the sex trade, narcotics trafficking, embezzlement and human smuggling among the marriages.
The report called for steps to crack down on the racket, but three years later it is not clear that anything has changed, the CBC reports.
"While we want to keep the doors open for legitimate spouses or partners, we also want to make sure the doors are not open to those who would break our laws and exploit Canadians," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said recently.
