FRAUD SUMMARY - BRAZZAVILLE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRAZZAVILLE 000181 SIPDIS DEPT FOR CA/FPP, DHS FOR CIS/FDNS CORRECTED COPY - ORIGINAL PARA 1 REMOVED E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KFRD CVIS CMGT ASEC CF SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - BRAZZAVILLE ¶1. 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. -------------- Country Conditions -------------- ¶2. 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. ¶3. 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). -------------- NIV Fraud -------------- ¶4. 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. -------------- IV Fraud -------------- ¶5. 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 BRAZZAVILL 00000181 002 OF 003 standard format for documenting the major life points - birth, 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. -------------- DV Fraud -------------- ¶6. 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. -------------- ACS and U.S. Passport Fraud -------------- ¶7. 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. -------------- Adoption Fraud -------------- ¶8. 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. -------------- Use of DNA testing -------------- ¶9. 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. -------------- Asylum (and other DHS benefits) Fraud -------------- ¶10. As with DV fraud, most of post's asylum fraud is related to false relationship claims. -------------- -------------- Alien smuggling, trafficking, organized crime, terrorist travel -------------- -------------- ¶11. 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. -------------- DS criminal fraud investigations -------------- ¶12. 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. -------------- -------------- Host country passport, identity documents, and civil registry -------------- -------------- ¶13. 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). BRAZZAVILL 00000181 003 OF 003 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 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. -------------- Cooperation with Host Government Authorities -------------- ¶14. 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. -------------- Areas of Particular Concern -------------- ¶15. 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. -------------- Staffing and Training -------------- ¶16. 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. ¶17. 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