Navigation

Senate favours stop to sham marriages

The Senate has given its support to a law that would end the right to marry for asylum seekers and illegal residents in Switzerland.

This content was published on May 26, 2009 - 11:18

Parliamentarians passed the motion with a vote of 27-12, despite opposition from the political left, which argued that such legislation would put the constitutional right to marry in danger.

The law has already gained the support of the House of Representatives.

During the debate on Tuesday, Maximilian Reimann, from the rightwing Swiss People's Party, said that each year there are up to 1,000 cases of marriages of convenience in Switzerland by people trying to stay in the country.

Under the new law, foreigners seeking to wed must first produce evidence of legal residency. Those who fail to do so will be reported to the immigration authorities.

Anita Fetz, from the centre-left Social Democrats, said that Switzerland already had tools to prevent sham marriages and criticised the fact that the authorities would be turned into whistleblowers.

swissinfo.ch with agencies

In compliance with the JTI standards

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

Sort by

Change your password

Do you really want to delete your profile?

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.

Discover our weekly must-reads for free!

Sign up to get our top stories straight into your mailbox.

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.