British Embassy warns visa applicants vs using fake papers

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos applying for a British visa who submit fake documents will be arrested and won't be able to apply for entry to the United Kingdom for 10 years. Mark Date, head of the Visa Section of the British Embassy in Manila, issued the warning on Wednesday, stressing that the UK has a "zero-tolerance policy" on fraud and falsification of documents. In most cases of fraud, applicants submit fake bank statements and real estate documents, and fake certificates of death, marriage, and birth. Some married applicants were also discovered to have lied about their civil status so they could remarry in the UK. Many applicants claim to have businesses in the Philippines to make it appear that they are people of high standing or have money to enter the UK. "In truth, we don’t know why they do it," Date said. "We can speculate, but they do it for some reason. The fact is, don’t do it. You will be found out. We have no tolerance to it, and when you are found out you will be handed out to authorities." Since 2007, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), in cooperation with the UK British Embassy, has arrested 70 individuals due to fraud. "We don’t want these people to apply with false documents," Date said. "We want genuine people, genuine Filipinos. Our job is not to stop people from going to the UK. Our job is to make sure that the right people are in the UK and we want to entice as many people to travel there. We don’t want to entice people who are going to use forged or fraudulent documents or give false declaration on any aspect of their application." According to Date, the British Embassy is also coordinating with the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) to go against syndicates that supply fake bank statements or certificates. The UK’s visa service processes more than 40,000 applications from the Philippines and welcomes over two million people a year to the UK. All applicants for a UK visa are required to provide biometric data as part of the application. This identifies if they have previously broken the rules in the UK or have made an application in a different name. Developments in risk assessment and forgery identification have also made it far easier to uncover the cheats. New UK immigration rules prevent anyone who has previously broken immigration laws, such as those who have worked illegally, overstayed for more than 28 days, or come to Britain illegally, from coming to the UK for a fixed period. The NBI’s resources in running after forgers are limited, but Date noted that the agency’s effort to crackdown on visa syndicates is impressive. On Tuesday, the embassy provided the NBI with a new vehicle to further increase its capability to go after syndicates. Earlier this year, the embassy also turned over specially equipped laptop computers, mobile phones, printers, and scanners to NBI Director Nestor Mantaring as part of a partnership to combat extortion and document falsification. - GMANews.TV