Marriage for Sale | Al Jazeera World

Marriages of convenience, or sham weddings, are an illegal way of obtaining residency and citizenship in Europe countries and elsewhere.

This film meets men and women who marry – or plan to marry – people they hardly know, with the sole objective of obtaining European residency for one of them. These deals can sometimes cost one of the “partners” as much as 15,000 euros ($18,100) with no guarantee of citizenship in return.

A so-called “white marriage” is where both parties willingly participate in fraud but stay together. But in what are called “grey marriages”, the whole venture is a charade in which one party not only plays the system but also deceives the other, often with shattering consequences.

Despite the risks, some see sham marriages as a less dangerous form of migration than crossing the sea in a rubber dingy.

In this film, we meet six characters who have either been involved in a “grey marriage” already – and suffered the shock and humiliation of being deceived – or who are planning to use marriage as a means to a better future.