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.”
