Westmonster
Berlin immigration authorities have been caught up in a scam involving EU spousal visas and illegal Nigerian migrants, which has made abuse of the system possible for years.
According to a Radio Berlin investigation, a gang of smugglers would charge migrants up to €13,000 in return for a virtually guaranteed EU residency card, by posing as a married couple with a Portuguese woman the gang would supply.
One Portuguese woman who was part of the scam reportedly had seven aliases she used to pose as the wife of the newly arrived Nigerian.
According to investigators, immigration officers fell for the forged marriage certificates, despite a warning from the government not to trust documents from Nigeria.
A junior immigration official told Radio Berlin that they became suspicious at the high number of Nigerian-Portuguese ‘couples’ obtaining residency cards and alerted their superiors.
“The suspicion that something is wrong with these applications has been stated on several occasions and also forwarded to superiors, but nothing has happened.”
Read more
Berlin immigration authorities have been caught up in a scam involving EU spousal visas and illegal Nigerian migrants, which has made abuse of the system possible for years.
According to a Radio Berlin investigation, a gang of smugglers would charge migrants up to €13,000 in return for a virtually guaranteed EU residency card, by posing as a married couple with a Portuguese woman the gang would supply.
One Portuguese woman who was part of the scam reportedly had seven aliases she used to pose as the wife of the newly arrived Nigerian.
According to investigators, immigration officers fell for the forged marriage certificates, despite a warning from the government not to trust documents from Nigeria.
A junior immigration official told Radio Berlin that they became suspicious at the high number of Nigerian-Portuguese ‘couples’ obtaining residency cards and alerted their superiors.
“The suspicion that something is wrong with these applications has been stated on several occasions and also forwarded to superiors, but nothing has happened.”
Read more
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