Germany Wrestles With Migrant ‘Fake Father’ Scam
Immigrants paying German men to claim paternity.
Migrant women in Germany have figured out a way to lock down their residency status. It’s essentially a scam but it’s being widely used. Pregnant migrants are paying German men to say they’re the father of their unborn child.
The Telegraph UK reports:
Pregnant migrants pay German men to pretend to be father of their children in visa fraud
Pregnant migrant women are paying German men to claim to be the fathers of their children so they can stay in the country, it has emerged.
Women from Vietnam, Africa and Eastern Europe are paying German men as much as €5,000 (£4,350) to pose as the fathers of their children, according to RBB local television in Berlin.
An investigation by the broadcaster found some 700 suspected cases in the last few months in the German capital alone.
Angela Merkel’s government is taking the claims seriously. “There are a lot of unreported cases,” Ole Schröder, a junior minister in the interior ministry said.
“We have a lot of evidence from the foreign residents’ authority. The fake fathers do it for money. In other words, we are dealing with serious crime.”
You may think a simple paternity test would put an end to all this but guess again.
The BBC reports:
Some pregnant immigrant women are reported to have paid fake fathers and solicitors as much as €5,000 (£4,356; $5,628) to get paternity registered. Once that is done, the baby automatically becomes a German citizen and the mother has the right to stay.
However, in 2013 a German Constitutional Court ruling said that even in suspicious cases it might not be worth contesting paternity, because the child could end up stateless and left in legal limbo.
It is generally easier for refugees fleeing conflict to get residency in Germany than for economic migrants who have escaped poverty in Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe.
Even so, Germany is taking steps to deal with the problem.
The Associated Press, via the Washington Post:
Germany cracking down on false father schemes with migrants
Germany’s Interior Ministry says a new law will help prevent German men make a profit by registering as the fathers of babies born to foreign women to get the children citizenship.
The ministry said Tuesday that measures soon coming into effect will address the “long-standing” problem by making such a practice a civil offense. Immigration officials can nullify children’s citizenship if the paternity claim is found to be an abuse of the system.
The perpetrators of this scam , both the migrants and the German men helping them, are obviously defrauding German taxpayers. There should be consequences.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
The fake fathers do it for money. In other words, we are dealing with serious crime.”
I guess the terrorist attacks aren’t serious crime. Fraud is so much worse than murder. smh
In the US, an admitted paternity claim would result in the ‘father’ being liable for 18 or 21 years of child support, and the award of up to 50% of the wages of the father.
In Germany a man can be liable for child payments in the same way. You can see how much via a calculator at http://www.lawyerdb.de/Support.aspx
So for a once-only sum of €5,000 a stupid man could be paying back this amount after a few months of child support, then be continuing to pay for 18 years after that.
In the case of fraud, maybe the mother and child should be deported, but the man made to pay to the state the equivalent of the child support every year so that he never forgets.
I don’t get it. Aren’t the men legally and financially responsible for the child, after it’s born? If not, pass a law that makes them responsible.
After all, they’ve got €5,000 seed money.
That’s the Law of Unintended Consequences coming to bite unsuspecting men years later.
Today: 5,000 Euros just to sign a piece of paper? Sure!
Three years from now: What do you mean, this woman is suing me for 50,000 euros for back child support?
Thus leaving the poor schmuck with two options: pay up or go to jail, or admit to a crime and go to jail.
“Germany cracking down on false father schemes…” sounds like fake news to me.
Merkel is coping with the whiplash from loose narratives in the ball of yarns she has been spinning.
Nonsense, the child should have the citizenship of the mother; they just don’t have the guts to implement the law as written.
Not if the mother’s country’s laws don’t give it citizenship. Germany can’t tell another country what its laws ought to be.
Okay, so the scam referred to in this article is about pregnant migrants who paid Germans to pretend to be the parents of their child in order to obtain german citizenship. If they don’t do that, what citizenship does the child has? Is the child stateless?
Let’s pretend we’re not talking about migrants trying to scam the system; suppose a pregnant tourist from “Vietnam, Africa” or “Eastern Europe” traveling in Germany delivers her baby ahead of time. When she returns back home is her government going to tell her now that her child is not Vietnamese or a citizen of whatever country she’s from?