Rome anti-terror police sources
told ANSA Friday they are probing a bride-for-hire racket
involving destitute Italians and foreign nationals for possible
terrorist links.
An ANSA investigative report sparked the probe into what
police say is a clandestine network recruiting prospective
spouses in squats and soup kitchens in Rome, offering them three
to four thousand euros to travel to Cairo to marry a would-be
immigrant.
The weddings take place in Egypt with Coptic Christian or
Catholic rites, after which the foreign national can apply for
residency in Italy.
"We have organized a dozen such trips," explained A., a
40-year-old Italian who recruits Italian spouses and deals with
marriage registration red tape.
"The marriage requests arrive through the Italian embassy
in Cairo," he added.
The Italian spouse is given his or her fee and is free to
go home within a couple of weeks of the nuptials, he said.
While the entire transaction runs around 9,000 euros, two
requests for Italian marriage partners offering twice the usual
rate came in after the July 11 car bombing of the Italian
consulate in Cairo, raising anti-terror police suspicions.
Meanwhile in Rome, a 33-year-old unemployed Italian mother
told ANSA in an interview Friday she is about to embark on her
second marriage-for-hire to a foreigner.
The woman, known only as S., lives with her two-year-old
daughter in a 30-square-meter room in a Rome squat, and is
preparing to fly to Cairo to wed a stranger in exchange for
9,000 euros.
"I need the money," said the bride-for-hire. "They've
promised me lots, but to tell you the truth I would do it for
much less," she said, holding her toddler in her arms.
"I don't work, but I'm not a criminal," she added.
She went on to explain that her first wedding for hire was
to a Brazilian transsexual in Rome, so he could get his
residency permit.
Her broker, she said, is an Italian national who wed an
Eritrean woman in Iran.
"When I get back I'm going to buy a couple of things for my
daughter," she said.
"A wedding is one thing, love is quite another. For me
neither matters, nor does it matter to the immigrants. I just
want to get by."
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