No marriage for “Harraga” (illegal migrants) in future on territory of France

The French authorities are set to abolish the marriage of “Harraga” (illegal migrants) on their territories for those who do not have residence documents, and to tighten the procedures of marriage in general, in a move meant to curtail fraudulent marriage, especially by North Africans, notably Algerians who reportedly pay about 15 thousand Euros for the completion of the proceedings of this kind of marriage.

A number of deputies of the French National Assembly submitted a bill aimed at stamping out  fraudulent marriages on French territory, especially by citizens of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia,  and the relevant proposal was registered at the Presidency of Parliament on 21st  February 2018, and was signed by 27 French MPs, in a document of 12 pages.

The bill states that thousands of immigrants come to settle in France every year and some enter the French territory with a legal visa, but refuse to return to their own country after their visas’ expiry.

The project stated that numerous “harraga” (illegal migrants) are marrying on French soil to get out of the illegal situation they are living in, often via fraudulent means of marriage through collusion whose purpose is only to secure bona-fide residence documents.

In this connection, official statistics from civil status agents in the French municipalities indicate that Algerians, Tunisians and Moroccans are at the forefront of France’s fraudulent marriages, as well as other nationals from other countries, such as Haiti, sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe.