Numerous cases of fraud by immigrants in receiving social assistance have cost the state of Lower Saxony alone five million euros
As "Russkaya Germaniya" writes, it is in this city that the State Office for Refugee Reception (LAB) is located, where last summer more than a thousand asylum seekers were registered daily in Germany. Today, however, it is becoming clear that many of them arrived in the country with anything but good intentions, and initially tried to deceive the German immigration authorities by using different first and last names.
The trick used by the fraudsters was quite simple: they changed clothes, grew beards, put on glasses, invented a new place and date of birth, and thus registered as refugees several times. Sometimes the fraudsters even came to the same official, who, however, did not notice the deception.
The leadership of LAB acknowledges such cases, stating, in turn, about the "monstrous burden" that fell on the shoulders of the agency's employees last summer. "The most important thing was that we tried to provide people with housing and food. And all this happened under stressful conditions, because at that time no one knew how many refugees we would ultimately have to register," notes LAB representative Michael Levin. At the same time, he also admitted that fingerprints were not required from asylum seekers at that time: there was barely enough time and resources to photograph the refugees.
This situation was exploited by many asylum seekers. According to Commissioner Memenga, these were "exclusively men from sub-Saharan Africa, mainly citizens of Sudan." To date, more than 300 cases of fraud in receiving social assistance have been identified. By receiving financial aid under different names, the suspects illegally pocketed an average of several thousand euros each.
Let us recall that, according to current legislation, asylum seekers receive on average 135 euros per month in "pocket money" and 216 euros for "covering personal expenses" if they are "not on full state support," i.e., usually immediately after registration.
There are also particularly egregious cases of fraud uncovered in Braunschweig. For example, investigators established that a single individual from Sudan registered 12 times under different names, illegally receiving more than 45,000 euros! The total financial damage from the fraud is estimated at up to five million euros.
The fraud only began to be uncovered when some LAB employees noticed that in various photographs, refugees looked suspiciously similar. It was then decided to involve the police, who established the full scale of the crime. The investigative unit, however, admits that it will be very difficult to bring most of the suspects to criminal responsibility. The problem is that the fraudsters cannot even be served a summons to the prosecutor's office, as their whereabouts are unknown. "We sometimes do not even know the real names and citizenship of many of them," the police admit.
At the same time, the investigative unit emphasizes that such deception of social authorities is no longer possible today – every asylum seeker is required to provide fingerprints.