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R 301507Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY WINDHOEK
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 0793
NVC PORTSMOUTH 0013
INFO SADCC COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS WINDHOEK 000360 
 
 
For CA/FPP, CA/VO, JOHANNESBURG FOR RCO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC WA
SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - WINDHOEK 
 
REF: A) 08 WINDHOEK 183 
     B) 07 WINDHOEK 318 
 
 
¶1.   (U) COUNTRY CONDITIONS: Namibia is a developing country with 
one of the world's highest levels of income inequality.  Namibia has 
a population of roughly 2 million, with a low NIV and a moderate ACS 
workload.  Culturally, there are strong ties to family and clan 
identity, as well as a strong sense of national pride.  Most 
applicants are legitimate travelers who can easily demonstrate ties 
to their home country.  The level of fraud in visa and American 
Citizen Service applications is low.  Most fraud is associated with 
third country nationals, the subject of a validation study done two 
years ago (ref B).  There have been cases of fraudulently obtained 
permanent residence stamps and other evidence of alleged immigration 
benefits in Namibia, but such cases have been rare. 
 
¶2.  (U) NIV FRAUD: Non-immigrant visa fraud is low.  Most fraud is 
not particularly sophisticated, involving fraudulent employment or 
invitation letters.  Post conducts spot checks of questionable 
supporting documents to detect fraud.  There are no significant 
fraud patterns in employment-based, student and exchange visitor, 
religious workers or other visa types. 
 
¶3.  (U) IV FRAUD: Post does not process Immigrant Visas.  I-130 
petitions for alien spouses are taken at post and forwarded to 
Consulate Johannesburg for processing. 
 
¶4.  (U) DV FRAUD: Post does not process Diversity Visas.  Namibia 
has a low rate of application and no more than 20 applicants have 
interviewed each of the last two DV years.  These cases are also 
processed in Johannesburg. 
 
¶5.   (U) ACS AND PASSPORT FRAUD: Citizenship adjudication can be 
difficult as many American citizens were born to Namibian parents in 
the United States and have only children's passports, some of which 
expired many years ago.  Namibian birth documents are not 
computerized, and are theoretically susceptible to fraud. Documents 
are verified with government authorities in cases where suspicious 
documents or other fraud indicators are encountered; within the past 
six months, there have been no cases of confirmed fraud. 
 
¶6.   (U) ADOPTION FRAUD: Adoption by foreigners is rare in Namibia; 
only a few adoptions by foreigners have occurred over the past five 
years. Adoptions can take place if a foreigner obtains permanent 
residence in Namibia, or if the foreigner receives exceptional 
permission from the Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare 
and the Minister of Home Affairs.  The additional scrutiny given to 
foreigners seeking to adopt has generally discouraged fraud. 
 
¶7.   (U) DNA TESTING: DNA testing is rarely used.  IVs are not 
processed at this post, and most citizenship cases can be resolved 
without resorting to DNA.  A few citizenship cases have been 
referred to DNA when the father was an American citizen seeking to 
transmit citizenship to a child born out of wedlock to an alien 
mother.  In such cases, the father may have had little or no contact 
with the mother since before the child's birth.  Verifying the 
relationship is difficult as the standards of the law go beyond a 
"preponderance of the evidence" for such cases; thus, DNA testing 
can be a useful tool. 
 
¶8.   (U) ASYLUM AND OTHER DHS BENEFIT FRAUD: Post has not detected 
fraud in Asylum or other DHS benefit cases in the past year.  Post 
has processed only one follow-to-join case, which was approved, and 
contained no fraud detectable by the adjudicating officer. 
 
¶9.   (SBU) ALIEN SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, ORGANIZED CRIME AND 
TERRORIST TRAVEL: The U.S. Embassy has not encountered organized 
efforts of this type.  There have been no submissions from post to 
the Visas Viper program in the past six months.  Consular 
representatives from the European Union (EU), specifically Germany 
and France, have noted attempts to obtain Schengen visas via false 
identities for purposes of smuggling illegal diamonds; however, they 
confirm no incidents in which the perpetrators of this fraud 
presented false U.S. visas or other fraudulent U.S. travel 
documents. 
 
¶10.  (U) DS CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS:  Post has no on-going or 
completed fraud investigations for this reporting period which were 
referred to the Regional Security Officer (RSO).  Windhoek is a 
small post.  In the midst of an investigation, Conoff and RSO would 
communicate regularly person-to-person.  At the conclusion of an 
investigation, the RSO would write a formal summary of the 
investigation and findings for Conoff's review and comment. 
 
¶11.  (U) COUNTRY PASSPORT, IDENTITY DOCUMENTS AND CIVIL REGISTRY: In 
February 2009, Namibia introduced a new machine-readable passport 
with a laminated face page, as well as a fluorescent reproduction of 
the face page along with all bio-data, which is printed opposite the 
face-page and only visible under black-light.  The fluorescent 
printing is a new security feature. Within the next year, the 
government expects to begin issuing passports with computer chip 
technology similar to U.S. passports. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Recently Canadian authorities reported cases of Nigerian 
nationals attempting travel to Canada on false Namibian passports, 
in order to exploit the Temporary Resident Visa waiver granted to 
Namibian nationals.  While the use of these false passports was not 
apparently intended for travel to the U.S., post has noted their 
availability for Namibians or third-country nationals who may wish 
to apply for an NIV under a false identity.  Post has initiated a 
precautionary fraud prevention procedure, checking all newly issued 
passports with black-light.  Thus far, no false Namibian passports 
have been detected at post. 
 
¶13.  (U) Marriage and birth records still are not computerized or 
centrally stored, and are usually hand-written; thus, they are 
susceptible to fraud.  Until recent years, many births in Namibia 
were never registered.  Now all births which occur in a hospital are 
registered on-site, and these registrations must be taken by the 
family to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration in order to 
process official birth certificates. 
 
¶14.  (U) COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES: The Namibian 
government is generally responsive and helpful in dealing with 
matters of fraud, though the cooperation is often limited by the 
rudimentary nature of their information systems.  Immigration 
records are not computerized.  The Namibian government is 
computerizing citizenship records, but the process is proceeding 
slowly.  Post has received good cooperation in its requests for 
verification of civil documents. 
 
¶15.  (U) AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN: Namibia has extensive land 
borders with South Africa, Angola, and Botswana.  Weak immigration 
controls at these borders outside of official checkpoints make 
Namibia a potential destination for transit of mala fide travelers. 
Third country nationals comprise roughly 20 percent of the applicant 
pool at any given time (23% over the last six months), and the 
refusal rates are higher for these nationals.  Post's last 
validation study (ref B) showed overstay rates below 5 percent for 
almost all third country nationals.  Some Namibians have been the 
victims of e-mail scams promising a visa and/or jobs in the United 
States.  Such schemes are generally unsophisticated, but some have 
closely duplicated DV notifications or other official USG 
correspondence.  The last six months has seen a downturn in this 
type of scam as awareness has heightened among the general public; 
many recipients of such e-mails or letters now call or write the 
U.S. Embassy to verify the correspondence. 
 
¶16.  (U) STAFFING AND TRAINING: Post has a single Consular Officer 
who also serves as Global Affairs Officer, covering issues related 
to environment, nature and wildlife conservation, and refugees. 
Post also has one full-time LES Consular Assistant and a part-time 
EFM assistant.  No Consular staff members have participated in 
training specifically focused on fraud prevention in the last two 
years. 
 
HARRINGTON