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German police probe 8 document fraud cases among new Afghan arrivals

German police probe 8 document fraud cases among new Afghan arrivals

Yahoo17-04-2025

The German Federal Police are investigating several Afghans who entered the country with a promise of admission for possible document fraud.
Preliminary investigations have been launched in eight cases for document fraud, the authorities said on Thursday evening. According to information obtained by dpa from security sources, the cases mainly involve forged or falsified documents.
A plane chartered by the German government carrying 138 Afghan nationals granted admission to Germany touched down in the eastern city of Leipzig on Wednesday evening.
The plane took off from Pakistan's capital Islamabad.
"We can confirm that the particularly endangered persons from Afghanistan who arrived yesterday from Pakistan have been subjected to entry checks and that preliminary investigations have been initiated," a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior told the German tabloid Bild.
Foreign Office: No doubts about identity
"All persons on the charter flight were thoroughly checked," a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in Berlin said. "There was no doubt about anyone's identity, because security is the top priority in these procedures."
All those who entered Germany had been persecuted by the Taliban.
Germany is taking in Afghans through several programmes. Until shortly before the Islamist Taliban seized power again in August 2021, Germany had soldiers in the country as part of a NATO mission.
In addition to former local staff of the German Armed Forces and other German institutions and their relatives, Afghans who fear persecution by the Taliban are also to be accepted. This may be the case because they have worked as lawyers or journalists for human rights in the past.

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A committed Eurosceptic, he once derailed former Prime Minister Ted Heath on the programme - after proving that he had indeed, despite his denials, once signed a document agreeing to transfer UK gold reserves to Frankfurt. On turning 70, the pace of his writing began to slow. The Cobra, published in 2010, saw the return of some of the characters from Avenger. In 2013, Forsyth published The Kill List, a fast-moving tale built round a Muslim fanatic called The Preacher, whose online videos encouraged young Muslims to carry out a series of killings. He wrote all his books on a typewriter and refused to use the internet for his research. Ironically, his 18th novel, The Fox - published in 2018 - was a spy thriller about a gifted computer hacker. Forsyth announced it was to be his final book, but he later came out of self-imposed retirement after the death of his second wife, Sandy, in 2024. 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