UN Refugee staff trained
to detect scams
Accra, Dec. 6, GNA - Identity and document
fraud, staged security incidents, fake medical
reports and bribery are among the main subjects
on the curriculum for United Nations staff
working in resettlement programmes for African
refugees as part of an intensified battle
against scams.
“It is clear that the vast majority of refugees
are law-abiding,” UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) Director for Resettlement
Services, Mr Vincent Cochetel told a training
workshop for 30 participants from more than a
dozen UNHCR offices in Eastern, Central and
Southern Africa.
“However, fraud – from individual cases to
larger scale criminal enterprises – serves to
undermine and even threaten this important
protection tool,” he said in a written message
to the two-day workshop in Nairobi, Kenya.
A statement issued in Accra on Wednesday by the
UN Information Centre in Accra said the course
was also attended by representatives of the
United States, Canada and Australia, three of
the major resettlement countries, as well as an
International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
official.
It said similar training workshops were planned
for West Africa and Asia. The training is one of
a number of initiatives undertaken by the
resettlement service to enhance counter-fraud
activities.
“It is particularly reassuring to us to see that
UNHCR is doing something about resettlement
fraud and that there is transparency in dealing
with it. It gives us more confidence,” Canadian
diplomat Tracy Vansickle said.
In 2001, resettlement programmes for more than
150,000 refugees in Kenya were suspended after
it was discovered that a criminal network had
infiltrated UNHCR’s refugee status determination
process to force bribes from people seeking
resettlement in third countries.
Measures have since been introduced to prevent
such fraud, but the agency remains on the alert
for new scams, including the use of the
internet.
Mr Cochetel said it was essential to step up
efforts to combat resettlement fraud because
“the consequences can be detrimental, above all,
to refugees as resettlement programmes may be
suspended indefinitely as a result of fraud”.
In the class on identity fraud, a UNHCR
protection officer cited a refugee from Eritrea,
who had presented herself as an Ethiopian
national because she believed this would boost
her chances of resettlement.
The refugee spoke Amharic, a language spoken in
both Ethiopia and Eritrea, which made early
detection of the fraud difficult.
Another case cited involved Burundian refugees
presenting themselves as Rwandan nationals.
Rwanda and Burundi have the same ethnic
composition.
In other cases, refugees registered non-family
members as relatives to benefit from more aid.
When it came to processing for resettlement,
they claimed that the relative was dead.
“We have seen false death certificates,
particularly when families are unable to produce
children registered in the family unit,” a
protection officer told the workshop.
UNHCR staffs were urged to remain vigilant for
red flags of possible fraud or corruption such
as sudden unexplained wealth of individuals
involved in resettlement. “If your systems are
weak and the management oversight in
resettlement is modest or inadequate, it all
comes together to create an opportunity for
fraud,” Ted Tunis, the lead trainer at the
workshop, warned.
GNA
