According to a report by The New Straits Times (NST), many were also trying to keep their new marriages hidden from their first wives.

Last year, the Malaysian consulate in Thailand’s Songkhla district recorded 4,178 such marriages, an increase from 4,081 in 2015 and 3,831 in 2014, the report said.

NST said the data covered the second or subsequent marriages of Malaysian men with either Malaysian or foreign women.

Thai Islamic authorities from the Narathiwat Islamic Council even opened a branch in Sungai Golok, Kelantan last year to facilitate the growing number of such marriages, it added.

NST said this was because many Malaysians had complained they were cheated by marriage syndicates that charged exorbitant prices but issued them with fake marriage certificates.

Narathiwat Islamic Council vice-president Abdul Aziz Che Mamat told the paper that with the new office in Kelantan, couples could collect their marriage certificates after one week.