Swiss national Barbara Schwager, 56, faces potential prison time in Switzerland after she smuggled her 27-year-old illegal migrant boyfriend out of Switzerland to avoid his deportation back to Pakistan.

The 56-year-old claims that she wants to marry her much younger partner Nadeem Akram in order to get him legal residence in Switzerland, Blick reports.

Initially, the pair were arrested attempting to cross the German-Austrian border and were both jailed. Schwager was sent back to Switzerland to her hometown of Ettenhausen along with Akram who was told by Swiss authorities that he was required to report to the local migration office in the Canton of Thurgau.

Thurgauer Strafbefehl flattert ins italienische Liebesnest: Schlepperin aus Leidenschaft droht Knast https://t.co/n50rLE3VzE pic.twitter.com/E5W3TEh9kp — Blick (@Blickch) October 4, 2017

Fearing that Akram would be deported back to Pakistan, Schwager decided to drive herself and her young lover to Italy to avoid his potential deportation.

Police were likely well-informed of the pair’s activities as they decided to grant an interview with local media and tell their “love story” shortly before they departed for Italy.

“The police came by and interrogated our neighbours,” Schwager said and complained that the couple has limited resources in their current home in Tuscany. “A wedding is possible at the earliest in six months. We have no work, no money, and Nadeem is illegal here,” she said.

After the Swiss authorities found out where she was, they sent a letter demanding 950 Swiss Francs in fines including 400 Swiss Francs after she was convicted of promoting illegal migration.

Schwager said she does not have the money to pay the fine. She will face up to four days in jail if the fines are not paid.

The case is very similar to a phenomenon in Austria in which older women attach themselves to much younger migrant men and sometimes make the men dependent on them.

‘Sex Tourism’: Open Borders Activist ‘Exploiting’ Migrants By ‘Sleeping Around’ In Calais Camp https://t.co/JetjhqNaOd pic.twitter.com/WJmpejiO0U — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 23, 2016

The so-called “Sugar Mama” trend has been criticised by some like Manfred Buchner of the Austrian Men’s Health Centre who said: “There is a great dependency. Not only mentally, but also materially. Many of these men face homelessness.”

Women have also been accused of taking sexual advantage of migrant men in various migrant camps as well including the former Jungle camp in Calais.