Dutch authorities have uncovered 173 forged documents submitted at the Ter Apel refugee reception center in 2020 by asylum seekers, the Royal Military Police said.
The statistics showed that Syrians and Turks often bring up invalid documents in order to obtain the right to asylum in the Netherlands.
Figures from the Military Police show that Syrians are most often arrested on charges of fraud, this happened 83 times last year, followed by the Turks (17), Iraqis (16), Yemenis (13), Afghans and Iranians.
According to the Dutch De Telegraph newspaper, most of the documents that I saw from government sources were irregular. For example, most of them were forgeries in travel stamps (visas) and in changing birth certificates.
In cooperation with a special team, the Royal Military Police is looking for invalid documents in the Ter Apel center and for people who pretend to be younger, what they are actually like, or people who want to pretend they have left the European Union in the hope of submitting a new application.
Some foreign nationals from countries that provide little opportunity for asylum also use documents in order to increase the opportunity to obtain residence permits.
Fraud can also result from the fact that asylum seekers do not want to be traced to their true identity. The reasons for this can be very diverse, De Telegraph said.
Police statistics reveal that passports are the most common identity and document fraud, in addition to providing ID cards or driver's licenses.
It is well known that showing false documents does not always have consequences for the asylum procedure.
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.