The Rise of 'Husbands for $17 a Month':
A Deep Dive into Fake Marriages and Immigration Fraud
There is nothing more difficult than getting a foreign husband. This is what was revealed in a report published by the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which stated that for 300 Rand - the local currency - per month, yes per month, South African women can easily get a foreign husband, specifically a Pakistani national!
The problem is that these marriages are fake, and have turned into fraud operations on immigration candidates, as a woman is currently accused of being involved in arranging marriages of this type for women, to marriage candidates who hold Pakistani nationality.
These marriages target countries that have high rates of visa applications and "family reunification." At a time when the European Union countries and the United States of America are holding procedures for reuniting spouses of different nationalities, which are marriages that are mostly done for the purpose of immigration, fraudsters and those active in illegal immigration networks are inventing new fraud methods.
International reports are indicating the involvement of South African citizens in fraud operations worth millions of dollars annually, their victims are of different nationalities, as they send emails to addresses around the world and rely on databases of the elderly and retirees, addresses of visa candidates and even asylum seekers, and deceive them into believing that they are companies working in the field of immigration, and hack their personal data, and may sell them fake appointments at embassies and consulates and ask them to transfer money. Unfortunately, thousands of victims around the world fall into the trap of these networks annually, which are based in sub-Saharan Africa.
But this is the first time that a report has emerged sounding the alarm about the fraud network for immigration candidates, in which Pakistani husbands are offered to women wishing to marry foreigners.
The report stated that several women from the Limpopo region of South Africa were arrested after they revealed their involvement in pre-arranged marriages with the owners of the “Sabaza” shops, one of the hotbeds where victims are lured, and they implicated other foreigners involved in these operations.
According to the report, a woman named “Shabir”, aged 36, revealed that the first accused in the case, named “Persilla”, offered her marriage to a Pakistani citizen for a monthly fee of 300 rand, and the agreement stipulates that the woman was obligated to pay this amount for life!
The victim also said that she traveled with the first accused in the case to the Home Affairs offices in Johannesburg, South Africa, always in the company of Pakistani citizens and other citizens to complete the procedures for the marriage.
The problem is that many marriages are fake, and even the real ones are classified as human trafficking, as long as those who want to get married are forced to pay the amount, which is equivalent to 17 US dollars, every month.
A very small amount for obtaining a foreign husband for South African women, but it turns into a “lifetime fee” which makes the process tainted with many moral and psychological repercussions.
The women who blew up the case were in the process of completing marriage procedures with foreign citizens, most of whom were Pakistanis, which means that there are marriages that took place in this way, and the husbands who were “rented” for the victim women may have provided forged documents, which made human rights organizations express their concern that married women in this way will be exploited in cases of terrorism, money laundering and irregular migration movements.
There is a proverb in South Africa that says a husband cannot be bought with money, and there is also a proverb repeated by Persian philosophers that a wife cannot be bought with money even if she is created with golden nails. But it seems that the grandchildren have a different opinion!