Ottawa has announced that it will crack down on migrants who use an arranged marriage to fraudulently enter Canada.

Immigration officials have admitted that the proposal will affect members of the Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and other communities who bring spouses to Canada through arranged marriages but the government has maintained the proposed measures are not designed to affect genuine applicants — only those who use arranged marriages as a way of fraudulently entering the country.

Under the proposal, Canadian immigration officers will conduct more thorough background checks of applicants and will have more tools in order to protect the immigration system from bogus marriages.

Immigration lawyers in Toronto have expressed the view that there is suspicion of high abuse of the marriage process to emigrate to Canada, and this negatively affects innocent immigrants who are all suspected of fraud. ■