Germany: Two Kosovo brothers in court allegedly won nearly 1m euro by counterfeiting language tests for customers

According to prosecutors, two Kosovo brothers forged almost all letters their clients presented to authorities. These forges included license for machine “pione”, residence permits and supposedly passing linguistic exams. The photocopied documents were given either in a local town in the German city of Backnang through a language school in Elwangen or through mail. The buyers then delivered these forged letters, hoping to gain residence or naturalisation permission, reports “aussiedlerbot”.

Brothers, aged 37 and 31, are currently on trial. The accused men, a metal master and a skeet master are facing not only charges of counterfeiting documents but also smuggling foreigners. Each customer paid up to 2,300 euros for each forged document. The brothers reportedly won about 880,000 euros from this scheme, Klankosova broadcasts.tv.

While charges have been filed against both men, investigations are under way for those involved in language school. The third brother is said to have escaped the charges.

The prosecutor read from the indictment, stating: “forged documents offered the opportunity for their recipients to gain residence, naturalize or find higher-level jobs and more profitable”. However, some of the so - called language schools did not exist.

The accused men are accused not only of forging documents but also of smuggling foreigners.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has not yet made a statement about how it plans to address potentially counterfeit documents, which could potentially lead to rejection of residence permits.

Since 2008, each immigrant has to undergo a linguistic test to get a German passport. Moreover, a uniform test of naturalization should be passed, which includes over 30 questions about German history and the political system. Applicants are expected to have a good understanding of German language and culture to communicate with others, work and interaction with German authorities.

Baden-Wurtemberg's statistical office found that in the last year, 22,745 foreign citizens became German citizens. This is an 8.5% increase from a year ago and the highest number since 2002. The Syrians were the ones who received mostly German citizenship, while naturalization growth took place among Iraqi and Afghan citizens. This was due to the high influx of migrants from these countries in recent years.