MAURITANIA'S SEMI-ANNUAL FRAUD REPORT

UNCLAS NOUAKCHOTT 000636 DEPT FOR CA/FPP DEPT PLS PASS TO KCC WILLIAMSBURG E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC MR SUBJECT: MAURITANIA'S SEMI-ANNUAL FRAUD REPORT REF: (A) 08 STATE 74840 ¶1. Mauritania is a poor developing country whose small population and relative isolation have kept the demand for visas relatively low. There has been significant rural to urban migration since the devastating drought of the 1970s. There are three major ethnic groups in Mauritania: White Moors, Black Moors, and Afro-Mauritanians. Conflicts between these three groups over language, land tenure, and other issues, led to what are known as the "1989 Events" and continue to post a challenge to national unity. The level of fraud at post is medium. Sophisticated technology to create high-quality fraudulent documents is non-existent in Mauritania. Mauritania held its first free and fair elections and inaugurated a new parliament and president in April 2007. Following several months of political crisis in mid-2008, a military junta overthrew the democratically elected president in a bloodless coup August 6, 2008. After peace talks were held in Dakar Senegal, opposition parties and the military junta agreed that the democratically elected President, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, would step down from power and elections would be held. General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz won the July 18, 2009 elections. While some opposition leaders claimed election fraud, the international community agreed with the decision of Mauritanioa's constitutional authorities that Aziz won the election. As a result of the transparent elections, a number of international organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have resumed relations with the government of Mauritania. The Mauritanian government estimates that approximately one third of Mauritanians are unemployed and many others are underemployed. The informal sector of the economy is very large. Low salaries in both the public and private sectors have caused young Mauritanians to migrate legally and illegally to the United States and Europe. The growth of Mauritanian communities in the United States has encouraged others to try to immigrate to the United States. Many migrants from neighboring West African countries transit through Mauritania trying to reach the Canary Islands (Spain). Most travel across the porous borders from Senegal and Mali to reach the northern port town of Nouadhibou to attempt to reach the Canary Islands. Of the thousands of emigrants that leave Mauritania each year attempting to reach the Canary Islands, only a relatively small percentage of them are Mauritanian. Most are emigrants from other West African countries. While many Mauritanians do try to immigrate to the United States or Europe, there are not the same social pressures on them to do so that there are in other neighboring countries. ¶2. NIV Fraud B1/B2 visas: Typical NIV fraud occurs more often during the interview than through documents. During the interview, many people will try to hide past visa overstays, illegal work, or fraudulent asylum claims. Many claim that they have lost previous passports or had to turn them in when applying for a new one to hide past overstays. Many women without strong professional ties, particularly those applying alone, tell the consular officer that their husband is a business owner or high ranking government official. Upon attempting to verify the husband's employment, post often finds out that the husband is not employed as the applicant indicated during the interview. In these cases, the husband is frequently living illegally in the United States. Post does see some fraudulent supporting documents such as fake invitation letters and ready made "packages" of bills and customs documents designed to provide the impression that the applicant is an experienced international trader and businessman. Fraudulent bank documents are not as common. There are only a few banks in Mauritania and each bank has distinct and identifiable documents. There are few people in Mauritania capable of producing high quality fake bank documents. When post does have a question about the validity of supporting bank documents, most Mauritanian banks are willing to confirm the veracity of a bank statement over the phone. Post has confirmed fraudulent bank documents on three occasions during the past year. These applicants are generally refused under 214(b) as they often do not meet the INA 212(a)(6)(C)(i) requirements. The other type of fraud that is recurrent is genuine documents with false content. A genuine businessman will issue job letters, salary stubs, and even travel orders for a visa applicant who has never worked for him to help him to get a B1/B2 visa. Other applicants will bring in bank documents that belong to a friend, family member, or employer. A continuing concern remains Mauritanian diplomats in Washington D.C. and New York who often send letters of invitation stating that they will cover all expenses for the invitee during their stay in the United States. Other applicants will apply for visas with brand new Chinese or Schengen visas in their passports. They will try to use the presence of a visa as a history of travel even though there are no stamps in the passport indicating that they have ever traveled on the visa. F-1 visas: Most of the F-1 visa applicants do not intend to follow or complete a course of study. These applicants believe that it is easier to obtain a student visa than a B1/B2 visa. Most applicants are sponsored by an uncle or other relative. Since it is virtually impossible to verify the blood relationship between a nephew and an uncle, visa applicants use a distant relative, a family friend or anybody that is willing to issue them a sponsorship letter and their bank records. Given the economic situation of the country in general, it is hard to believe that an uncle will pay for expensive education in the United States for a nephew. Most of the letters of sponsorship for studies in the United States are genuine documents with false statements. These applicants generally apply to study English at non-degree granting language schools. Most do not have a high school diploma and have never studied English before. Those that have been accepted into a degree program are generally more qualified, but there are still fraudulent applicants. A and G visas: Fraud perpetrated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mauritanian Embassy in Washington as well as the Permanent Mission to the U.N. in New York remains a concern. Diplomatic missions are issuing contracts to unqualified young men to hire them as secretaries, administrative assistants, drivers, cooks, and security guards. Interviews with the applicants show that they have neither the appropriate educational background nor the work experience for the job. Almost all of the applicants have been unemployed at the time of their visa applications. In two cases, the applicants had previously been refused B1/B2 visas. This lack of qualifications and the large numbers of these contractors compared to the small size of the two Mauritanian diplomatic missions in the U.S. indicate that these contracts are issued to help unemployed young men enter the United States. ¶3. IV Fraud and DV Fraud Nouakchott does not handle IVs or DVs. Post assists Embassy Dakar, which processes these visas for Mauritanians, in investigations of Mauritanian civil documents. ¶4. ACS and U.S. Passport Fraud Post has seen little indication of ACS or U.S. passport fraud. Post has received one presumably fraudulent CRBA application in the past six months. DNA testing was recommended to confirm parentage, but the applicant never returned to complete the required DNA testing. ¶5. Adoption Fraud Adoption is not permitted in Mauritania according to Islamic law. However, this has not stopped several people who have obtained asylum in the United States from trying to claim adopted children as beneficiaries. Post has been willing to consider cases where the petitioner can prove that they have legal guardianship of the child and that they have actually acted as an adoptive parent, but none of the petitioners to date have been able to do so. ¶6. Use of DNA Testing Post routinely uses DNA testing in Visas 92 petitions and occasionally in CRBA cases. Legitimate documents containing false information are easily obtained, so post cannot rely on local birth certificates. Post has used the results of DNA testing to return petitions to DHS on several occasions. ¶7. Asylum and Other DHS Benefits Fraud A large number of Mauritanians who have traveled on B1/B2 or F1 visas have been granted political asylum status, many of them using false statements and documents. Relationship fraud in Visas 92 petitions is rampant, and DNA tests are routinely used to confirm qualifying relationships. The ease of obtaining real marriage certificates containing false information makes confirming relationships where no children are involved very difficult. In addition, Mauritanian women often do not know very much about their husbands. As a result, it is difficult to differentiate legitimate relationships from fraudulent relationships. These cases require significant time and resources to conduct fraud interviews and investigations. ¶8. Alien Smuggling, Trafficking, Organized Crime, Terrorist Travel Post has seen little evidence of alien smuggling or trafficking among visa applicants. While there are terrorist groups operating in Mauritania and neighboring countries, post has not identified any trends of members of these groups applying for visas. ¶9. DS Criminal Fraud Investigations Post has not had to send any cases to the RSO for further investigation. ¶10. Host Country Passport, Identity Documents, and Civil Registry Civil documents in general are not reliable, particularly those issued prior to the general census of 1998. All reports of birth, death, marriage and divorce are submitted by the family to the appropriate government office. The government office then documents the information in the presence of two random witnesses who attest to the validity of the statements. Previous government-issued identity cards were very easy to reproduce and thousands of counterfeit cards were produced during the presidential election which preceded the 1998 census. These fake national IDs were also used by non-Mauritanians hoping to gain asylum in the United States based on human rights abuses in Mauritania. The new national ID cards are much better. They are difficult to replicate and all information is stored in a centralized electronic database. Birth certificates are also now being recorded in a centralized database. Fake marriage certificates are still rampant since many are bona fide documents acquired under false pretenses. Before the recent improvement in the issuance of birth certificates, births were not reported until the child enrolled into school or applied for a travel document. As a result, most people do not know their exact date of birth and report it on official documents simply as January 1 or December 31 of the year of their birth. Most passports show only the year of birth. Names are problematic because the majority of Mauritanian names within each ethnic group come from a very small pool of common names, which makes it difficult to evaluate CLASS hits. The similarity in names allows visa applicants to use bank statements, commercial documents, or academic records of other people bearing similar names. Post often relies on interviewing techniques to identify the fraudulent cases. Applicants with good financial records but no previous travel and no recorded success in business require further scrutiny. There are three types of passports in Mauritania: regular, official/service, and diplomatic. In the past, many non-diplomats were issued diplomatic passports and continue to carry them. Mauritanian passports are not secure. They are hand-written and do not contain a machine readable zone or any biometric features. The photo could easily be substituted. One of the most difficult problems is that the naming conventions used by passport officials have changed over the years. The most significant change is whether the father's and grandfather's name is included in the person's name. Depending on the year of issuance, passports may or may not include "ould" (son of) and "mint" (daughter of) in the name. Post has seen numerous occasions where an applicant has presented his or her current passport plus two old passports to demonstrate a history of travel. In each of the three passports, the name is different. The transliteration from Arabic can also change the spelling of names. These differences make it difficult to confirm past visa issuances or violations. ¶11. Cooperating with Host Government Authorities Local authorities are generally helpful with the verification of civil documents. Due to the highly centralized nature of the government, some lower level employees not accustomed to verifying documents for post will require letters and authorizations from high level government officials before verifying documents. The biggest problem is not the level of cooperation, but lack of good record keeping. It is often difficult to verify documents because they were either not recorded or the records no longer exist. Because of poor record keeping, the inability to find a record of it is not necessarily a confirmation of fraud. ¶12. Areas of Particular Concern None. HANKINS