Alarm at sale of fake ID papers on social media

by NADEEM BADSHAH

PLATFORMS URGED TO STOP VULNERABLE ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES FROM BEING EXPLOITED

MIGRANTS are being targeted by fraudsters selling fake British passports on Facebook, an East­ern Eye investigation has found.

Criminals are openly selling bogus travel documents and ID cards on the social media website for between £800 and £2,600.

One seller wrote he was part of a group of “IT professionals and database technicians that are specialised in the production of passport, license, ID cards, birth certificates, diplomas” and has produced the documents for peo­ple in over 170 countries.

He wrote: “We are unique pro­ducers of authentic high quality documents, real genuine data base registered and novelty pass­ports, fake UK ID cards…UK pass­port and other…buy novelty pass­port.” Three email addresses and a phone number were included.

Another company had a link to a YouTube video showing ID cards from different countries and was offering to “Buy Fake/Real pass­ports and documents online”.

A separate firm posted a video of an email address to contact to purchase “Fake UK E-passports”.

Campaigners are worried asy­lum seekers and refugees in the UK will be duped by rogue firms offering passports or may be tempted to turn to them due to the rising cost of Home Office fees.

Entering the UK with a fake passport is a criminal offence un­der the Immigration Act. If a mi­grant provides false ID docu­ments, they can be banned from entering UK for 10 years, be thrown out of the country or face a prison sentence.

Mohammad Yasin, the Labour MP for Bedford and Kempston in Bedfordshire, said Facebook must be proactive in removing bogus adverts. He told Eastern Eye: “They should ensure their systems are robust enough to identify such false advertising be­fore publication.

“But consumers have a part to play too. Rising Home Office fees are an issue, but there’s no easy or cheap way around them, and any ad promising a quick fix to an im­migration problem is very likely not be genuine.

“I always advise my constitu­ents to get proper legal advice before making any application through the Home Office.

“Legal fees might seem like an unnecessary expense, but repeat­ed refusals are costly and can cause real heartbreak, and appeal options are now very limited for certain types of application.”

It costs £85 to submit a paper application for a standard UK passport for people aged 16 and over. Naturalisation for non-Brit­ish overseas territory citizens costs £1,330 compared with £906 in 2014-15, while nationality reg­istration for adults has gone up from £823 in 2014-15 to £1,206.

Labour MP Khalid Mahmood branded the trade of black market passports online as “exploitation of the most vulnerable people in our society”.

He said: “Refugees or illegal immigrants who find it difficult to raise money for a passport are doing labour work for unscrupu­lous people.

“This is a horrific trade. It’s also the responsibility of Facebook to monitor. For a long time there’s been a real issue of social media companies hosting content on sexual abuse, radicalisation and criminal activities.

“The Home Office needs to be vigilant and look at these groups and should act with the police.”

A newspaper investigation in June exposed passports cloned with details taken from real ones being touted for a few hundred pounds on websites.

Sellers using the WhatsApp messaging service were also of­fering entry stamps into countries for £170-£280.

Tamana Aziz is the business immigration director for Duncan Lewis Solicitors.

Aziz said: “Facebook has been used in the past to buy Syrian passports from sellers targeting vulnerable migrants.

“It is important that those agents are identified and govern­ments in Europe put safeguards in place to protect migrants, in particular children.

“I have had cases where clients have received a prison sentence because they have been identi­fied entering the UK using a false passport,” Aziz explained.

“In this case, it is not the agents supplying the false documents that are in jeopardy, but the mi­grants who are being duped into buying them.”

A Facebook spokesman said counterfeit items are not allowed as they breach its rules.

“We urge people to use our re­porting tools to flag content that they suspect may be illegal or vio­late our standards so we can re­move it.”