Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DUSHANBE195
2006-01-30 11:36:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Dushanbe
Cable title:  

FRAUD SUMMARY - TAJIKISTAN

Tags:  KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC TI 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO5896
PP RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #0195/01 0301136
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 301136Z JAN 06
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6559
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHFT/AMCONSUL FRANKFURT PRIORITY 0487
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 7655
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000195 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR CA/FPP; DEPT ALSO PASS TO KCC; POSTS FOR FRAUD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC TI
SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - TAJIKISTAN

REF: STATE 205073

DUSHANBE 00000195 001.2 OF 002


UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000195

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR CA/FPP; DEPT ALSO PASS TO KCC; POSTS FOR FRAUD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC TI
SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - TAJIKISTAN

REF: STATE 205073

DUSHANBE 00000195 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) COUNTRY CONDITIONS: Tajikistan, independent since the
Soviet breakup in 1991, is the poorest Central Asian republic
and the ninth poorest country per capita in the world. The vast
majority of the population lives well below the poverty line,
inducing many working-age Tajik males to become migrant workers
in Russia rather than face rampant unemployment and
underemployment in Tajikistan. Though some Tajiks legally work
abroad and remit their earnings back to Tajikistan, trafficking
in narcotics and persons, as well as a large black and gray
economy, increase the use of fraudulent documents. Fraudulent
document venders are prevalent and target the migrant labor
population, as well as the local small-time trading community.


2. (SBU) Though anti-corruption laws exist in theory,
enforcement and implementation remain elusive. Corrupt
government officials continue to thwart attempts to tighten the
issuance and regulation of national identity documents.
Instances of fraudulently issued domestic and international
passports are highly suspected, though Tajik officials will not
address this issue directly with Embassy officials. [NOTE:
Tajikistan continues to use domestic passports for travel and
registration for Tajik nationals within the country, and a
separately issued international passport for travel outside of
Tajikistan. Approximately 15% of the population has an
international passport and large bribes are expected to receive
a new one.] The defunct skeleton of the former Soviet
record-keeping system and the lack of integrated or organized
local and national archives make investigation and verification
of Tajik-issued documents difficult at best, irrelevant at
worst. Across the board, documents from bank and real estate
statements to birth and marriage certificates can easily be
obtained fraudulently for any purpose.


3. (SBU) Embassy Dushanbe will not issue non-immigrant visas in
Tajikistan until the completion of its New Embassy Compound in
Summer 2006. Tajik nationals currently travel to Almaty,

Kazakhstan, to interview for non-immigrant and immigrant visas.


4. (SBU) NIV FRAUD: Lack of trust in Tajik documents makes it
very difficult to assess local social and economic ties.
Tajikistan remains a very traditional society: Tajiks do not
typically put money in banks and letters of employment (even
government positions) are often created and issued within family
and clan structures. Tajiks will change passports and names to
conceal previous visa refusals thanks to Tajik officials who
exhibit a cavalier disregard for the sanctity of national
identity documents. Recently, a group of Russian sportsmen were
issued Tajik international passports listing their nationality
and place of birth as Tajikistan for the purposes of
representing Tajikistan in an international competition.


5. (SBU) IV FRAUD: Post accepts and processes a limited number
of I-130 petitions (approximately one a month). Marriage fraud
in Tajikistan is not common apart from DV applicants. Tajik
society is very traditional and is generally not open to
marriage to foreign citizens. In addition, there are relatively
few Tajik-Americans, negating the rampant marriage fraud that
comes with large diaspora communities.


6. (SBU) DV FRAUD: DV fraud in Tajikistan echoes that of the
Central Asian region. Almaty recently reported a sham marriage
(pop-up derivative) in a Tajik DV case. Though high school
equivalent documents cannot be trusted implicitly, Tajiks
roughly fall into two categories and can be assessed based on
overall life situation: agricultural laborers from the villages
and mountains (unlikely to have earned a high school education)
and city residents (usually have college degrees in addition to
high school equivalent education).


7. (SBU) ACS and PASSPORT FRAUD: Post has yet to record ACS or
passport fraud in Tajikistan. Due to the small American citizen
community, the Consular Officer and Embassy local staff are
often personally acquainted with resident Americans. Few Tajiks
have U.S. citizenship, CRBA's are issued no more than once a
year, and many of the Americans resident in Tajikistan have
diplomatic or official passports. Lost or stolen passports are
rare occurrences and in the past few years lost passports were
often returned within one week of disappearance.


8. (SBU) ADOPTION FRAUD: Very few U.S. citizens successfully
adopt in Tajikistan. Those who choose to follow the full legal
adoption system are often forced to give up due to senseless
bureaucratic wrangling. The government of Tajikistan does not
have a set of laws governing international adoption and is
reluctant to make progress, leaving a chaotic and arbitrary
process. Large unofficial bribes are suspected to be the reason
for the few completed adoptions in Tajikistan. There are no
NGOs or agencies in Tajikistan that work on adoption issues, and

DUSHANBE 00000195 002.2 OF 002


an American citizen recently could not even find Tajik lawyers
or judges willing to look at his adoption case.


9. (SBU) Fraudulent documents required for adoption are not
difficult to obtain. During an I-604 orphan investigation, post
discovered forged hospital records and a fraudulent birth
certificate submitted "by mistake" by a self-declared adoption
facilitator. The birth certificate, fraudulently issued by a
Tajik hospital, listed the adoption facilitator and his wife as
the orphan's birth parents. The facilitator intended to use
this birth certificate in order to transport the adopted child
as his own to Almaty for visa processing and was caught because
he accidentally left it in the packet of information he
submitted for the I-604.


10. (SBU) ASYLUM AND OTHER DHS BENEFITS FRAUD: Post assists
DHS to verify documents and determine status. Though Tajik
documents are not to be trusted as a rule, recent investigations
discovered exact cases of documented fraud. In a recent asylum
case, post's investigation revealed a forged birth certificate
that was material in final determination of asylum status in the
United States.


11. (SBU) COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES:
Document fraud is technically a criminal offence in Tajikistan.
In combating these crimes, the Tajik Ministry of Foreign Affairs
is at best an occasionally competent partner. The MFA
periodically informs us by diplomatic note about the numbers of
lost or stolen Tajik passports, and also cooperates with post's
requests for verification of civil documents (though usually
months later than requested). But endemic corruption, shoddy
record keeping, and lack of prosecution for document fraud limit
the utility of cooperation.


12. (U) AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN: Post will address new
concerns and increase examples of documented fraud once NIV
processing begins in Tajikistan in Summer 2006. An expected
boom in NIV applicants, able to interview in their own capital
for the first time, will undoubtedly increase the frequency and
complexity of NIV fraud.


13. (U) STAFFING AND TRAINING: Dushanbe Consular Section Chief
Evan McCarthy is also Post Prevention Manager. He expects to
complete the Fraud Prevention for Managers course at FSI in
Spring 2006. Post currently has one Consular FSN, Natalia
Pilipenko, and will hire two additional positions for the
opening of the new fully functional Consular section, one of
which will be FSN fraud investigator. Natalia has received visa
and document fraud training during the FSN Consular Training
Seminar at RSC Frankfurt, October 1998.
HOAGLAND