The storm over first-cousin marriage deepened last night after experts linked it to terrorist financing, money laundering and people trafficking.
Tories called for the marriages to be banned after The Mail on Sunday revealed last month that NHS guidance promotes their ‘benefits’ despite an associated increase in birth defects.
The marriages are also connected to unregulated, untraceable ‘hawala’ financing – a way of transferring money worldwide that depends on family ties and doesn’t leave a paper trace.
To make a transfer using hawala, someone deposits cash in one country with a password.
The same amount can be withdrawn abroad using the password via a trusted middleman in both countries. It does not require physical movement of cash.
The National Crime Agency says risks of money laundering and terror financing under this system are high.
It says Hezbollah has received billions through the system and Isis depends on it.
British funds have reached terrorist cells in Somalia and Syria, adds the crime agency.
An Asian wedding ceremony where close relative marriages remain particularly common in the community
Government investigators believe hawala is being used to launder at least £2billion every year in the UK.
Academic Dr Patrick Nash says because cousin marriages are typically made with foreign relatives, they are more likely to import hawala to the UK, as well as needing to transfer money abroad to family.
He says: ‘Labour must act swiftly to ban cousin marriage and hawala or be complicit in terrorist atrocities.’
Since being cut off from financial markets by the US, Iran has become adept at using hawala to transfer British funds to prop up terrorist regimes in the Middle East.
The National Crime Agency has also found that hundreds of millions of pounds a year is being channelled through hawala to smuggle migrants and potential terrorists into Britain.
Documents have been unearthed showing Government ministers, tax authorities and law enforcement officials promoting the hawala network.
In one case they show how families can use hawala to pay people-smugglers to help to cross the Channel.