€25m scam by asylum seekers uncovered
Wednesday January 31 2007
Social welfare and immigration officials have saved an estimated €25m in taxpayers' money after uncovering a massive benefit payments fraud by bogus asylum seekers living elsewhere.
However, investigators admit the full extent of the fraud has not yet been uncovered.
The Irish Independent has learned many asylum seekers are able to claim benefits from the State, despite living thousands of miles away.
One Nigerian woman claimed her life was in danger back home, but was discovered to have been living there for the past four years while claiming €67,000 in payments from the Government.
The managing director of a firm in Albania also falsely claimed asylum here while commuting regularly between the two countries for medical appointments.
A Chinese national received thousands in asylum allowances since August 2005, even though she was living in China at the time.
Members of the Garda National Immigration Bureau are working with their UK counterparts to weed out the scam.
The operation is part of an overall crackdown by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service on wholesale abuses in the asylum process.
Inquiries by immigration officials show a significant number of Nigerian nationals are abusing benefit payments such as lone parent, health board, child benefit and rent allowances.
Some are believed to be subletting houses and apartments to other non-nationals.
Many have valid visas to enter the UK and then travel here through the North.
A large proportion live and work legitimately in the UK and come here across the border to claim welfare benefits.
Also uncovered was evidence of substantial abuse of child benefit schemes by Chinese and Romanian nationals.
Men working in the UK are basing their family here for education and health purposes as well as abusing State benefits.
The anti-scam operation is based primarily on information from the databases of the Garda bureau, the Department of Social Welfare and the UK's immigration service.
A special investigation into the details of Nigerian nationals, who made asylum applications here in 2005, has also been carried out. Almost 1,200 names were checked.
In nearly half the cases, some attempt had been made to hide true identity while making asylum claims in Ireland.
More than 500 of the applicants were traced on UK databases, with nearly 380 granted British visas, while others had made an asylum claim in the UK or had valid reasons to stay there while lodging the claims here.
The investigation confirmed anecdotal evidence that Nigerians were using the UK as a gateway to here to make bogus claims and then return to the UK to live openly while reaping State benefits here.
The welfare cheaters who tried to beat the system
Global trail of deceit
