AFGHAN FRAUD SUMMARY

UNCLAS KABUL 001209

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: CMGT CASC CFED CJAN CPAS CVIS AF
SUBJECT: AFGHAN FRAUD SUMMARY


1. Afghanistan has suffered three decades of civil war and unrest.
It lacks good road, water, or power systems. International efforts
to help rebuild the country are hampered by insurgent attacks,
mountainous and difficult terrain, the lack of ingrained government
institutions, and the absence of a large, educated workforce. A
majority of both men and women are illiterate. There appears to be
little document integrity, both because corruption is an enormous
problem and because the Government of Afghanistan does not yet have
dependable system to produce reliable documents. Many Afghans are
born at home; there is no reliable civil registry of births and no
cultural emphasis on precise, repeated use of personal data.


2. Islamic "Sharia" law governs most social law, including marriage,
divorce, inheritance, and adoption, and civil institutions operate
within this framework. To provide an example, the consular section
has learned of a single- national American citizen (i.e. not
Afghan-American) who obtained an Afghan refugee document. Similarly,
the consular section knows of a local employee whose Embassy
personnel records list one date of birth while his Afghan passport
lists another. This FSN has decided to get his passport changed,
since he thinks it will be easier than getting his Embassy records
corrected, and he is not at all disturbed if his official documents
do not reflect his true date of birth.



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NIV FRAUD
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3. Post expanded beyond A and G visas and began additionally issuing
B1/B2, J, F, and C visas in February 2009. The vast majority of
applicants are very unsophisticated and do not appear to attempt
fraud. Instead, they freely admit to the officer that they have
little or no ties to Afghanistan. While significant instances of
fraud have not yet been detected, one cause of concern is that visa
applicants frequently present passports in which their names are
spelled differently, or only some of their names are included, or
where their date of birth recorded differently from a previous
passport or other records. They shrug when confronted with the
disparity, and often claim that it is too troublesome to try to get
the government to provide them with an accurate passport. Some false
documents have been detected that were purported to be evidence of
contracts with the US military, a significant source of money in
this country.


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IV FRAUD
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4. Post does not adjudicate IVs.


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DV FRAUD
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5. Post does not process diversity visas, but does provide public
information about the DV and warns Afghans not to be duped by
scams.


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ACS AND PASSPORT FRAUD
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6. Adoption is not legal in Afghanistan, although guardianship is
permitted in some cases. The Consular Section has occasionally
encountered American citizens trying to pass off as their own child
a baby born to other parents.


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ADOPTION FRAUD
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7. Adoption is not legal in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has no
provisions for international adoptions but the Government of
Afghanistan has indicated some support for guardianship on a
case-by-case basis. Consular is working with the GoA to establish
guidelines for the acceptance of guardianship cases. A proven
guardianship, as defined by Afghan law, has been determined by
Consular Affairs to be grounds for adoption by an American parent.
Adoption cases are currently handled out of Embassy New Delhi.


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USE OF DNA TESTING
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8. DNA testing is not available in Afghanistan. The possibility of
relationship fraud exists through the culturally accepted practice
of polygamy in Afghanistan.


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ASYLUM AND OTHER DHS BENEFITS FRAUD
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9. Not applicable.


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ALIEN SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, ORGANIZED CRIME, TERRORIST TRAVEL
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10. Post has not seen evidence of fraud to support nefarious travel.
Counterfeiting and fraudulent document production is remedial at
best in this country and those fraudulent documents that have been
found have been produced in support of travel of intending
immigrants, not criminals.



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DS CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATION
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11. RSO and Consular have a very good working relationship and
collaborate frequently on a variety of issues. One case of
suspected fraud on the part of an NIV FSN was reported to RSO this
year and the security clearance of the FSN was subsequently revoked.
RSO and CON are currently conducting an investigation into
allegations that PAS FSNs have been soliciting bribes from Fulbright
applicants.

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HOST COUNTRY PASSPORT, INDENTITY DOCUMENTS AND CIVIL REGISTRY
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12. Afghan passports lack lamination and can be easily altered with
a pen. When a legitimate change is made to a passport there will be
an official Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp on a page of the
passport along with a handwritten note relating the change to name
or date of birth. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues passports
and post has frequently noted the distribution of official passports
to Afghans who are not government employees. National ID cards
called "Taskera" are issued by local police stations and can easily
be obtained fraudulently.


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COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES
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13. Post has felt that given the lack of a complete criminal legal
code, the corruption issue, and cultural mores that do not emphasize
preciseness of personal data it will be a challenge to engage the
government on fraud and related issues.


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AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN
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14. Afghanistan's borders are far from secure. For example, the
consular section is aware of many visa applicants who are able to
travel between Afghanistan and Pakistan without passports. Naming
conventions also play an important role in providing Consular
services in Afghanistan. It is not uncommon for Afghans to use
different names for different circumstances. For example, an Afghan
may be known by one name to family and friends, and another to
his/her employer. Most Afghans identify themselves just by one name
and, occasionally, what appears as a surname is often the last part
of a long, single name that was broken up. An Afghan man sometimes
identifies himself by his first name and his father's first (or
only) name. Sometimes, he chooses as his surname the name of his
tribe, or his family's home region, or simply a word whose
definition is a positive characteristic. It is not uncommon for an
Afghan to invent a surname, often based on a word with
characteristics the individual likes (such as excellence, religious
connotations, etc.). Women before marriage follow the same naming
practices. After marriage, a woman either replaces her last name
(if she has one) with her husband's, or adds it after her original
surname (if she had one) or does not take a surname at all. During
the regime just before the communists took over (President Daoud's
regime),it was illegal for Afghans to use their tribal name as a
surname. When the communists took over (1978),many Afghans who
wanted to use this affiliation returned to it.


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Staffing and Training
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15. Kabul's Fraud Prevention Unit (FPU) consists of one part-time
officer Fraud Prevention Manager (FPM),and one part-time Fraud
Prevention Eligible Family Member (EFM) investigator. The Consular
chief has also completed fraud training at FSI.

Titles and training history are as follows:

Kevin D. Nelson
Vice Consul and Fraud Prevention Manager (part-time)
Departs 10/09

Katya Ilieva-Stone
FPU EFM Investigator (part-time)
Departs 08/09

EIKENBERRY