Police across Europe are trying to combat a new type of human trafficking. Each year, scores of young women from impoverished corners of eastern Europe are lured to the West for sham marriages. Authorities say the bridegrooms are typically from Asian or African countries, living in the European Union (EU) illegally or on short-term visas. The men want European brides so they can get the right to live and work in the EU. The women are told they'll get jobs and money, but often they're left with nothing or worse still, forced into prostitution.
Sham marriage is a form of exploitation which feeds on run down places like Krisovska Lieskova in the southeast of Slovakia, near the border with Hungary and Ukraine. This destitute settlement is home to around 250 people from the Roma community, Europe's poorest minority group.
Compared to the thousands of sham marriages reported to British authorities every year, the number that involve trafficked brides appears low - around 45 according to official figures from 2013. But detectives say trafficking is hard to track, and the real figure could be much higher.
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