SOMALIS IN KENYA: ABANDONED KIDS, IMPOSTORS, AND

UNCLAS NAIROBI 001650 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/CA DEPT FOR CA/FPP PASS TO KCC PASS TO INL/HSTC POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS THIS CABLE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC KCRM KE SUBJECT: SOMALIS IN KENYA: ABANDONED KIDS, IMPOSTORS, AND FAKE POLICE CERTIFICATES REF: A. NAIROBI 817, B. NAIROBI 740, C. 05 NAIROBI 4523 ¶D. 05 NAIROBI 3627 ¶1. (U) Summary: Post has seen great activity since Ref A among naturalized Somalis and Somali nationals in Kenya. A rash of Somali Amcit, LPR, and asylee children have contacted post with stories of abandonment by Somali family members after trips to Kenya or Somalia. Post has also noted several attempts to insert impostors into DNA testing requested in the course of immigrant visa processing. Finally, Nairobi has noticed that virtually all Somali IV applicants are gaining fraudulent Certificates of Good Conduct from the Kenyan Police. While the Kenyan Police has arrested an officer and an employee of the Criminal Investigations Division who were producing the fraudulent certificates, Post believes that the situation is endemic in the police service. Nairobi continues to address these issues specific to our Somali applicants. End Summary. ABANDONMENT -------------- ¶2. (U) Post is currently aware of 10 children of Somali origin, some Amcits, who have been abandoned by family members in Kenya and Somalia. Immigration authorities in Kenya believe that these children are often abandoned in Kenya so that family members can sell their travel documents and "recycle" them to smuggle other Somali children back to the U.S. as impostors. ¶3. (SBU) Zacharia Mohamed contacted the Embassy with a chilling tale of his kidnapping from the U.S. and confinement in Somalia. Zacharia is a 15-year-old child who entered the U.S. as an asylum seeker some years ago, but was returned to Somalia by his family because he was rebellious and "out of control." Zacharia came to Nairobi's attention because he fled captivity in Somalia and turned himself in to police in northern Kenya who helped him contact the consular section. When Post in turn contacted the parents, they expressed no interest in returning him to the U.S; instead they first attempted to have him released to the custody of family members by impersonating an Embassy lawyer over the phone and demanding the release of the child, then later sent Zacharia's grandmother to take custody of him from Kenyan Police with the presumed intent to return him to Somalia. Zacharia has visible physical marks from his confinement in Somalia and told us disturbing stories of being bound and forced to read the Quran. ¶4. (SBU) The Kedir siblings, four Amcits and three LPRs, were brought to Kenya by their father last summer. Post was contacted by their concerned mother in the U.S, and we recently found the children in Mombasa. Phone conversations with the children reveal that they have contracted skin problems and malaria during their stay in Kenya. Their mother in the U.S. is not yet an Amcit, and is currently unemployed and unable to pay for their return to the U.S. The father's whereabouts are unknown. Nairobi expects to make a "welfare and whereabouts" visit to the children in the near future. ¶5. (SBU) Zarah Haggen came to Kenya with her parents from the U.S. and was left behind. Her parents subsequently returned to the U.S. and divorced. The father of the child has requested a "welfare and whereabouts" visit, but the Embassy has been unable to contact the child's grandmother in Kenya. ¶6. (SBU) Sahra Guled is a 15-year-old Amcit who was brought to Somalia at the age of three months by her father. Sahra, like Zacharia, somehow escaped from Somalia and stayed with distant relations. She reported that her paternal family in Somalia was trying to take her back and she was forced to changed houses several times to avoid being found. DNA testing recently confirmed the relationship between her and her mother in the U.S. who was in possession of Sahra's original birth certificate. Fortunately in Sahra's case, CA was able to secure a return ticket to the U.S. that reunited her with her mother and brothers. IMPOSTORS -------------- ¶7. (U) Nairobi's panel physician has recently brought to our attention three specific cases in which applicants have attempted to substitute someone similar to their likeness in order to foil our request for DNA testing of immigrant visa applicants. In these recent cases, Post requested DNA to Qclude a sibling relationship between Somali-American petitioners and Kenya-based Somali applicants who are petitioning as spouses or fiances, but whom Post suspects are in reality siblings. (Note: Applicants and petitioners commit this fraud to avoid the long waiting period involved in petitioning siblings, which are numerically controlled.) ¶8. (U) A recent attempt at impostor substitution to foil DNA testing to exclude a sibling relationship occurred days after Post provided impostor detection training to the physician and his staff, and resulted in the arrest of two Somali women, the impostor and the beneficiary of the petition. Nairobi believes that impostor substitutions could also be occurring during DNA testing of petitioners in the U.S. and is contacting U.S.-based labs about this possibility. One U.S. lab which tests many of our Somali petitioners in the Minnesota region has already agreed to include photographic evidence of the person tested in the U.S. to ensure that no substitution occurs there either. ¶9. (SBU) The most recent case of impostor substitution to foil a DNA test to prove a father-child relationship included an impostor who, after hours of concealing his identity, revealed that he was an Amcit and his Somali- American father was knowingly committing immigration fraud to petition for the applicant as an IR-2, when in reality the applicant was a nephew of the petitioner. He admitted that following our request for DNA testing, his parents flew the impostor to Kenya to take a DNA test on behalf of the applicant so a father-child relationship would appear to be proven by DNA. A/RSO-I interviewed the Amcit and passed information about the petitioner to Diplomatic Security agents in the U.S. for further investigation. FRAUDULENT POLICE CERTIFICATES -------------- ¶10. (U) Due to the diligence of Nairobi's Fraud Prevention Unit(FPU) investigations assistant and the support of our A/RSO-I, Kenyan police arrested a 14-year veteran of the force and a secretary in the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) for issuing fraudulent police certificates of good conduct to undocumented Somali applicants in Kenya. Applicants have paid between $20 and $200 for these certificates, which they are not eligible for, as the vast majority of Somalis in Kenya are undocumented illegal aliens or refugees. Nairobi believes that the majority of these applicants are attempting to procure police certificates from official sources that, instead of telling the undocumented Somalis that they are not qualified, are instead issuing fraudulent certificates and pocketing the fees. Nairobi has recently sent an Advisory Opinion about this situation specific to NRB2005847004, applicant name ABDI, Hawo Isse. ¶11. (SBU) Telltale signs of fraudulent documentation include poorly reproduced signatures and manipulation of genuine certificates to reflect the name of the applicant. Post has brought this issue to the attention of the police and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA),and will continue to seek a lasting solution. Given the continued volume of fake certificates, Post believes this may be a significant source of income for corrupt police officers. Finally, Somali applicants are unable to seek police certificates of good conduct from Somalia due to a lack of Qtral government. Comment -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Post continues to monitor these issues among our Somali applicant, LPR, and Amcit pool, and seeks solutions where possible. Post also continues to be concerned that due to the volume and availability of fraudulent documents available to Somali nationals, we cannot be certain of the identity of these applicants from the world's only current failed state, a land with extensive known links to terrorism. BELLAMY