Bulgarians Making False Asylum Claims, Part II

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SOFIA 002003

SIPDIS

STATE FOR CA/FPP AND ASYLUM OFFICE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: CVIS KFRD ASEC BU
SUBJECT: Bulgarians Making False Asylum Claims, Part II

Ref: Sofia 1868


1. Summary: As noted reftel, we are seeing growing numbers
of following-to-join (Visas 92) Immigrant Visa cases where
it is obvious the original successful asylum seekers based
their claims on fraud, lies, forged documents and false
pretenses. On November 14 alone we received five such
cases. We are still in the process of investigating these,
but we report on other worrisome examples below. We will
continue to provide background on Visas 92 cases that fit
the identified fraud pattern, and we are grateful to USCIS
officials and consular officers for their interest in and
responses to our first report. We look forward to fruitful
future cooperation on this front. End Summary.


2. Evidence abounds here that creating phony documents to
bolster asylum claims made by Bulgarians in the U.S. is now
a booming industry. As some West European countries
(Belgium, for instance) have decided to deny political
asylum to Bulgarian citizens in light of Bulgaria's expected
accession to the European Union, and others (like Norway)
simply deport in summary fashion the hundreds of Bulgarians
who apply for asylum, the United States has become the main
target for prospective Bulgarian asylum seekers. Word is
out that if they go to the U.S. and apply for asylum
claiming they are Roma, they will easily be granted legal
status. We have heard of immigration attorneys in the U.S.
who explicitly give such advice to their clients.

-------------- --------------
ATTORNEY TELLS BULGARIAN CITIZEN TO CLAIM HE IS ROMA
-------------- --------------


3. A few months ago we interviewed Veselin Dragomirov
Dimitranov (DPOB 21 MAR 1961, Bulgaria, A No. A75 709 982)
in connection with his application for a CR-1 immigrant visa
as husband of an American citizen. In the course of the
interview we learned that he had applied for political
asylum in the U.S. as a Macedonian. He was denied and
ordered removed. He told us he had been advised by his
attorney to claim Roma ethnicity in order to gain asylum,
because that was easy and claiming asylum as a Macedonian
would likely not work. Dimitranov explained he found such a
lie exceedingly distasteful -- it was simply "beyond him" --
and preferred instead to file as a Macedonian, his father's
nationality. He signed the following statement (grammar not
changed): "Since October 1999 we have discussed with my
lawyer Mr. Peter Ashman do I have a good reason to stay
legally in U.S. He told me there is an easy way to stay in
U.S. if I want to declare that I am a gypsy from Bulgaria."
In addition to his own statement that he is not Roma,
Dimitranov's appearance and speech would lead any even semi-
informed observer to that conclusion. Yet he very well
might have obtained asylum had he followed his lawyer's
advice. There are no doubt increasing numbers of Bulgarians
here and (illegally) stateside who have come to learn the
"Roma card" can make a winning hand for a green card, and we
know there are unscrupulous attorneys encouraging them to
play it.

--------------
FATHER AND SON DISAGREE ON POLITICS
--------------


4. Milka Pavlevska applied for her Visa 92 status here in
November, 2004. The I-730 Petition was filed by her husband
Slavtcho Tsvetanov Pavlevski (DPOB 27 JAN 1949, Bulgaria, A
No. A95 306 523). Pavlevski had been granted political
asylum based on his supposedly well-grounded fear of
persecution as an ethnic Roma in Bulgaria. On his asylum
application Form I-589 he stated: "I and all my family are
ethnic Roma from the Kardarashi group. I am a member of the
Roma organization United Roma. My son is still an active
member of the same organization." His statement contains a
long and heartrending history of arrests and abuse. In the
course of the follow-to-join interview, though, Mrs.
Pavlevska categorically denied that she is Roma. We got in
touch with Pavlevski's son following the interview with Mrs.
Pavlevska, again to investigate the true character of the
petitioner's asylum claim. Unsurprisingly, fundamental
discrepancies popped up which revealed the petitioner's
patent phoniness. Pavlevski's son claimed that he and his
father were members of Euroroma -- a different Roma
political party than the one shown on the asylum
application. However, the son did not know any members of
this organization. He stated that he is not Roma, does not
speak the Roma language, and has never had any problems at
school or at his job. He told the officer that criminals
had once tried to get his family to pay protection money,
but this all-too-common petty extortion had nothing to do
with politics or ethnicity.
--------------
PERSECUTED BLUE-EYED ROMA
--------------


5. Bulgarians of Roma descent are usually readily
identified by their dark complexion and specific accent.
However, when a blue-eyed Caucasian person who does not
speak the Roma language and has no knowledge of Roma culture
or customs applies for Visa 92 status insisting she and
members of her family have been persecuted because of their
Roma ethnicity, an officer can be forgiven for becoming
skeptical. Such was the case when Sofia Dimitrova Morfova
and her two children were interviewed in connection with
their Visa 92 application. Her husband Delyan Vladislavov
Morfov (DPOB 05 OCT 1974, Bulgaria, A No. A96-219-164) had
been one of the "Romas" granted political asylum in the U.S.
Mrs. Morfova signed a sworn statement utterly refuting the
asylum claims of her husband.


6. Morfov had sought political asylum based on race,
political opinion, membership in a particular group, and the
Anti-Torture Convention. He stated that he was a member of
a Roma Organization which advocates for equal treatment of
Romas in Bulgaria. His wife, while explaining -- more than
a little surprisingly, considering the alleged circumstances
-- that she is not aware of her husband's political
leanings, said her husband never spoke of any mistreatment
and never bore any visible signs of physical abuse. Morfov
had written on his asylum application: "My family and I have
been persecuted on account of our Roma ethnicity by
Bulgarian police, citizens and members of Skin Head
Organizations. Throughout my life, my family and I have
been the victims of persecution at the hands of members of
Bulgarian society." His wife, though, told us that her
husband's "mother, father and brother Yavor have never been
beaten up or arrested by the police and they have never been
maltreated or persecuted by other persons or by skinhead
groups. Neither I nor our children have ever been beaten
up, arrested or detained by the police, nor have we been
beaten up or persecuted by other persons or organizations."


7. As proof of persecution, Morfov had presented a medical
certificate issued on October 18, 2002, shortly before he
departed Bulgaria to the United States. The medical
certificate says he had been severely beaten in a
discotheque, suffering injuries to the thorax, abdomen and
head. His wife had no recollection of this alleged
harrowing incident. We checked with the director of the
hospital which supposedly issued the medical certificate,
and he told us there was no record of Morfov ever having
been treated there. The ID number of the certificate Morfov
presented is in fact associated with the record of a
different patient.


8. Morfov's lack of credibility is aptly demonstrated by a
quick review of his several previous NIV applications (all
refusals). He declared in these, variously, that he was
both the manager of a company "Morfi 3" in the city of
Burgas and the Marketing Manager of Cafe Club Havana, also
in Burgas. In his asylum declarations he also claimed he
was the Cafe Club Havana Manager/Owner and that between 9/94
and 1/02 he worked in construction or as a janitor. His
wife stated that since the date of their marriage (11/21/98)
until his departure to the U.S. her husband worked as a
bartender at the Club Havana Caf, and that he has never had
a company registered in his name nor was he the owner of a
company. In the course of one NIV interview (on 12/29/02)
Morfov had tried to convince the consular officer that he
was going to the U.S. to participate in a chess tournament.
His wife revealed that he is not a chess player and has
never participated in any chess tournaments.



9. Morfov swore on his I-589 that he resided in the Roma
ghetto of the village of Rosen. A check by post's Fraud
Prevention Unit with the local authorities confirmed our
suspicion that Morfov had in fact never lived in that
village, and was unknown there. Mrs. Morfova does not speak
the Roma language, though she said her husband speaks some
Roma. While it is possible that Mr. Morfov is acquainted
with several stock Roma phrases, a follow-on interview in
Roma would almost certainly demonstrate that he does not
actually know the language. His parents are supposedly
Roma, but when we called his father it quickly became clear
that the father does not speak or understand Roma.

--------------
WHEN A POMAK IS NOT A POMAK
--------------

10. Petya Vasileva Kaneva, nee Baneva (DPOB 20 MAY 1970,
Bulgarira, Alien No. A97 586 545),was granted political
asylum on the basis of her claim to be a gypsy of the
"Pomak" persuasion (Bulgarian Muslim). She alleged that she
was discriminated against and humiliated by Bulgarian
society. In her written statement for her asylum case, she
said that her father had belonged to a minority of Muslim
Bulgarian gypsies and had died before she was born. She
explained that she grew up with her mother's family, also
Muslim Roma, in the village of Konare, and had a child. The
child's father, she claimed, had deserted her, and she had
to move to a different town because of the constant
discrimination and ostracizing in her mother's village. She
said she was raped and beaten by four policemen in her new
village and hospitalized for days as a result.


11. Baneva's mother accompanied her grandson to his V-92
follow-to-join interview. We asked her very simple
questions in order to verify the credibility of her
daughter's statements. The discrepancies between the two
stories turned out to be -- familiarly -- enormous.
Baneva's mother said her daughter left her home village of
Konare with the rest of the family at the age of 13 and has
not lived there since. Baneva's mother was married in 1965
and together with her husband she raised their two children.
Her husband died in 1999. The family is Bulgarian and all
their relatives are ethnically Bulgarian and Christians.
According to Baneva's mother, Baneva lived with her parents
until 1992 when she got married. She was married for 6
years, and her mother categorically stated there were no
arrests, detentions, or problems with the police for Baneva
in Bulgaria, nor had Baneva ever been hospitalized for any
reason.


12. Conclusion: The cases described above provide more
evidence of the increasingly strong and significant trend of
false asylum claims by Bulgarians in the U.S. The
Bulgarians misrepresent themselves as members of the Roma
community, and fabricate stories of long-standing abuse and
maltreatment. They posit facts and present documents which
we might quickly be able to prove false if we were notified
while the asylum applications were still pending. Continued
close cooperation between USCIS and Post in investigating
pending cases could be expected not only to prevent granting
asylum to phony claimants, but to generally slow a dangerous
fraud trend and weaken the widespread impression that any
Bulgarian seeking a surefire scheme for U.S. permanent
residency need look no further than "the Roma con."

Beyrle