Thousands of migrants are exploiting lax EU rules to bring their families and spouses to Britain by the back door.

Foreign nationals from outside Europe who would be unlikely to gain a visa to live or work in the UK are instead applying for citizenship elsewhere in the EU.

Under Brussels rules, they can then move to Britain and apply for permission to bring in their spouse or children.

Now a damning report by an immigration watchdog has found that the system is suffering ‘significant abuse’ at the hands of migrants who falsely claim they are related or married to a non-European living in the UK.

Yesterday, Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration John Vine called it a ‘growing problem’.

He said: ‘Our findings suggest the European citizenship route is becoming an increasingly important way into the UK for those whose origins lie outside the EEA [European Economic Area], particularly now that the immigration rules have been tightened.’ The report looked at more than 100 sample cases from the Home Office between April and September last year.

It found that more than a third of Western European nationals – 36 per cent – who were applying for citizenship for their partner were born in Africa, Asia or South America and had gained European citizenship before arriving in Britain.

In a quarter of cases the ‘sponsors’ – whose new nationalities included German, Italian and Spanish – were born in the same non-EU country as their partner.

In one case, a migrant who acquired Italian nationality before then moving to the UK received 97 per cent of his income from welfare handouts. Some 60 per cent of those applying for citizenship for a  so-called spouse last year failed because immigration officials feared the relationship was fake – but thousands still slip through the net.

Some had taken part in a sham marriage while in the UK and others claimed they had been wed by proxy, where a couple remain in Britain and both are represented at an overseas wedding ceremony, usually by family members. Most proxy marriages were found to be invalid, according to the report.

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Britain handed out passports at a rate of one every three minutes to make it the most open country in Europe, it was revealed yesterday.

Research showed 177,600 foreign nationals won British citizenship in 2011 – down from 194,800 in 2010.

The latest figure was the highest in Europe and accounted for one in five of the 783,000 migrants who became EU citizens in 2011 – down 29,300 on 2010.

It meant Britain handed out 54 per cent more passports than France and Spain, which were second on 114,600 each. Germany was third on 109,600.

The majority of those getting British passports were Indians, 26,200 and Pakistanis, 17,500.

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