In the past five years, thousands of people have allegedly traveled to Germany with forged documents on the orders of the Foreign Ministry. Several German embassies and consulates are reportedly involved in the scandal. Most of the entrants allegedly later sought asylum in Germany.
It was recently revealed that officials at the German Federal Foreign Office have been under investigation for over a year on suspicion of instructing staff at the German consulate in Islamabad, Pakistan, to issue a visa to a man named Mohammad G., despite knowing his passport was fake. According to the report, the Federal Foreign Office ignored warnings from the federal police in several cases involving Afghan nationals.
The public prosecutors in Berlin and Cottbus are currently investigating allegations that several officials at the ministry broke the law. They are suspected of instructing staff at German embassies and consulates to “approve the entry of applicants with incomplete or obviously forged documents into Germany.”
Initially, the Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the investigations, but a spokesperson later announced that the ministry is aware of three investigations. Organizational measures were taken in response to the known individual cases.
BILD has learned of at least 20 other highly problematic visa issuances to Afghan nationals, which are currently under investigation by prosecutors. These allegedly involve visa stickers found in travel documents that were not applied for or collected by the owner in person.
What does the Foreign Minister know about the investigations? Andrea Lindholz, deputy leader of Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU parliamentary group, stated clearly to BILD: “There is serious suspicion that Federal Foreign Office officials may have committed crimes.” She emphasized that security should “take priority” in visa issuance. Lindholz advises the federal government to “communicate actively and openly” about the visa scandal. The federal interior minister did not mention a word about it in the interior committee on Wednesday. “Ms. Baerbock cannot simply remain silent on this.”
The Case of Mohammad Ali G.
The entire visa scandal began with the case of Mohammad Ali G. In his case, the Federal Foreign Office’s legal department clashed with the visa office in Islamabad, Pakistan, because local officials refused to grant a visa to the man, who allegedly fled from Afghanistan, to enter Germany.
While investigating the case, BILD discovered an instruction from the legal department to the Pakistani visa center to allow Mohammad Ali G. to enter Germany. It stated: “There is actually no doubt about the applicant’s identity (…), fake passport or not (…).”
Visa Fraud in Beirut
In Lebanon, hundreds of people also allegedly used forged documents to obtain the coveted visa to Germany. This was facilitated by two fraudsters at the prestigious Goethe Institute, who circumvented family reunification rules. Applicants are required to submit language test certificates along with other documents to the German visa centers. This certificate is issued by the Goethe Institute, financially supported by the German Foreign Ministry – but in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, this document was forged in 449 cases.
This scheme worked until an observant employee at the German embassy’s visa center in Lebanon noticed a discrepancy: the applicant’s language skills were much poorer than the certificate indicated.
The Federal Foreign Office confirmed to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “We owe it to the observant staff at the Beirut embassy that the fraud cases involving language test certificates at the Beirut Goethe Institute were uncovered.”
The fraudsters have since been dismissed and are being investigated for document forgery.
What happened to the applicants? All those who had not yet traveled to Germany had their visas revoked and were banned from entering the country. However, around 200 Lebanese are reportedly already in the country with the purchased visas. It is currently unclear what will happen to them: the immigration authorities may revoke their residence permits, or they may take the language test in Germany.
Edited by Ivan Hajda
