FRAUD SUMMARY - BRAZZAVILLE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRAZZAVILLE 000180

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR CA/FPP, DHS FOR CIS/FDNS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CMGT ASEC CF
SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - BRAZZAVILLE


1. Embassy Brazzaville is an unclassified post.


2. Full scale NIV and ACS consular services are now available
at Embassy Brazzaville. On 18 February, the Consular Section
issued its first NIV. This was the first NIV issued in the
Republic of the Congo in 12 years. Prior to the opening of the
New Embassy Compound on 20 January, consular services for the
ROC district were based out of Embassy Kinshasa in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. IV operations for Brazzaville
continue to be run in cooperation with Embassy Kinshasa. At
present, IV applicants from the ROC must travel to Kinshasa for
their medical exams and IV interviews. The vice consul at
Embassy Brazzaville travels to Kinshasa on an as needed basis to
perform IV interviews for applicants from the ROC. Preparations
are underway to resume IV operations in Brazzaville. Post
expects full scale IV operations including medical exams to be
available in the ROC by September 2009.

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Country Conditions
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3. The Republic of the Congo (ROC),commonly called
Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from the DRC, is
geographically slightly larger than the State of New Mexico. The
country is bordered by Cameroon and the Central African Republic
to the north, Angola (the Cabinda enclave) to the south, the DRC
to the east and the Republic of Gabon and Atlantic Ocean to the
west. ROC remains a post-conflict country and the years of
conflict have had a devastating impact on the economy,
educational system, infrastructure, health and medical systems,
and welfare of its people. However, since the signing of peace
accords between the government and the last remaining rebel
forces the peace trend has been progressively consolidated.
ROC's sparse population, estimated at nearly 3.8 million, is
concentrated in the southwestern portion of the country, with
about 70 percent of its total population living in Brazzaville,
Pointe-Noire or along the 332-mile railway connecting the two
cities. Years of mismanagement, neglected infrastructure,
corruption, and conflict have left the ROC with per capita
income of about USD $1,100 per year, widespread unemployment,
and an economy dominated by the informal sector. In fact, the
2007/8 United Nations human development index ranked the ROC
139th out of a total of 177 countries.

4. All these factors create a strong recipe for fraud in ROC,
as people seek to flee the rampant poverty, ingrained corruption
and low standards of living. Thus, widespread fraud is found
among all categories of visa applicants, albeit typically at a
low or rudimentary level. Genuine birth certificates and other
forms of identity are easily obtained using fictitious
biographic information and the attestation of three witnesses,
thereby facilitating the issuance of multiple passports with
different names and dates of birth. Names continue to pose a
problem for current fraud detection algorithms, as passports are
frequently issued with different variations of family or first
names (with first names either omitted or included as part of
the surname in subsequent passports).
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NIV Fraud
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5. Approximately 60% of B1/B2 applicants present fraudulent
documents such as fake bank statements or letters of
introduction. The fraudulent documents are usually of poor
quality and most fraud is easily detected. West African
(primarily Malian and Senegalese) merchants who control retail
trade in the ROC represent about 20 percent of B1/B2
applications received at post. This applicant pool is more
likely to present fraudulent documents and the refusal rate is
approximately 70 percent. About 25 percent of post's NIV
applicants are official or governmental travelers and a larger
concern is the noted increase over the past several years in the
instances of official passports and government travel orders
issued to mala fide applicants. Documents are rarely relied upon
for the B1/B2 traveler, with the officer instead relying upon
the applicant's interview behavior and responses. Student visa
fraud consists mostly of fraudulent school records and
fictitious financial support documents. Reflecting the country's
poor educational system, most applicants are simply unprepared
academically for study in the United States.
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IV Fraud
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6. Follow-to-join asylee beneficiaries continue to make up the
bulk of post's IV cases. Many cases have been pending several
years, after post's IV operations were suspended in 1997 and
only resumed in 2005. As ever, a loose definition of family -
with cousins, uncles and so on considered part of the nuclear
family - combined with a critical lack of reliable civil
documentation make IV cases challenging. ROC still has no
standard format for documenting the major life points - birth,

BRAZZAVILL 00000180 002 OF 003


death, marriage, adoption or divorce - and civil law regarding
issuance of these documents is unevenly applied. DNA testing is
recommended in the majority of cases involving children.
Marriage fraud exists in asylum cases as well as IR petitions
and while post has not yet found evidence of payment for
marriages, most applicants have a very difficult time
demonstrating an ongoing relationship. Age fraud is common among
IV applicants and post has uncovered through interviews married
children attempting to pass as unmarried sons and daughters.
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DV Fraud
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7. Post finds instances of fraud in the vast majority of its DV
cases, typically via falsified diplomas and other "supporting"
educational documentation. Pop-up marriages also are common,
with applicants fraudulently claiming as a spouse someone with
whom they cannot prove a legitimate relationship. Children are
frequently discovered, via DNA testing, to be biologically
unrelated to the applicant. Post relies upon FPU investigations
and strategic interviews with applicants to discern fraud,
drawing also upon previously established contacts within the
GRoC.
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ACS and U.S. Passport Fraud
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8. With a small-sized, resident American citizen community, few
tourists, and a solid fraud prevention program in place, post
has had no cases of ACS or U.S. passport fraud since October

2007.
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Adoption Fraud
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9. Adoption cases are historically rare in ROC, with few cases
in the last six years. Thus, post has had to deal with some
adoption cases related to IV visas issuances. The cases were
proven to be conformed to the local procedures although it was
somehow difficult to establish the relationships. But post will
remain vigilant on these issues.
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Use of DNA testing
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10. In some cases, post recommends DNA testing as a means of
verifying claims of parental/child relationships in IV cases,
predominately for Visas 92/93 applicants but also increasingly
for DV cases as well.
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Asylum (and other DHS benefits) Fraud
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11. As with DV fraud, most of post's asylum fraud is related to
false relationship claims.
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Alien smuggling, trafficking, organized crime, terrorist travel
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12. ROC was added to the Tier 2 Watch list in the 2008
Trafficking in Persons Report and is a source and destination
country for persons being trafficked. Post continues to follow
details of a case involving the wife of a former ROC government
official, who was arrested in Canada on trafficking in person
charges after successfully applying at post for NIV visas for
her family. Although she used her correct identity when
qualifying for the NIV, the woman was detained by Canadian
authorities when she tried to use falsified ID documents to
enter that country. Canadian authorities say she had with her
several youths who are not the children interviewed and verified
at post during the NIV process. Post has had no cases of
suspected terrorist travel or organized crime, dating back
several years.
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DS criminal fraud investigations
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13. The RSO office provides excellent support for the Consular
office regarding fraud investigation. However, there were no
cases to report since the last fraud report.
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Host country passport, identity documents, and civil registry
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14. New machine-readable, computer-generated passports in
circulation since February 2008 have vastly improved the quality
and security of previous ROC passports. The new passports
include such security features as holograms, and come in three
types: diplomatic (maroon),official (blue) and regular (brown).
In 2007, ROC ran out of its supply of regular passports and
began using a system of annotated official passports, with the
"Code ETR" denoting official travelers and "Code A" denoting

BRAZZAVILL 00000180 003 OF 003


regular travelers. Those annotated passports will remain in
circulation through their expiration dates, meaning a mixture of
valid ROC passports will be in use for the next several years to
come. As always, there are no indications that the lax passport
issuance controls of the past have been improved and post
continues to watch for instances of passport fraud. Genuine
birth certificates and other forms of identity are easily
obtained using fictitious biographic information and the
attestation of three witnesses, thereby facilitating the
issuance of multiple passports with different names and dates of
birth.
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Cooperation with Host Government Authorities
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15. The level of cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the immigration authority remains excellent and,
through post's RSO and security staff, relations with police and
law enforcement officials are good. Local capacity, however, is
limited. Local officials do not see visa or passport fraud as a
priority but have been willing to pursue cases developed by
post. Post has enjoyed strong cooperation with the head of the
ROC inter-police agency, Interpol, and notes he was sent last
year by the GROC on a months-long training to Italy, Canada and
the US to learn passport and visa fraud detection techniques.
Now he is back and still willing to work with post.
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Areas of Particular Concern
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16. Brazzaville is resuming full scale operations after a twelve
year hiatus. Most consular operations including Fraud Prevention
must be rebuilt from the ground up. This reconstruction project
is being led by a first tour junior officer and three locally
engaged staff.

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Staffing and Training
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17. Brazzaville is a one officer post. Consular operations were
re-launched under the supervision of a TDY WAE Consul. The
entire operation was turned over to a first tour junior officer
10 days after arrival at post. Three locally engaged staff work
in the consular section. Two of the three LES joined the Embassy
in December 2008. The other LES has worked for the Embassy for
five years, but only began working in the consular section full
time in January 2009.


18. The limited experience of the section makes training a
priority for all staff. The LES have all completed PC 102, PC
103, and PC 104. The LES in charge of fraud investigations is
also enrolled in the online Fraud Prevention course. The
Consular Officer has not had any additional fraud prevention
training beyond ConGen.
EASTHAM