More than 200 applicants from third countries have been able to immigrate to Luxembourg and fraudulently obtain social benefits due to "administrative weaknesses", the public prosecutor's office has revealed.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, the public prosecutor's office disclosed a large-scale fraud case. The investigation points to "significant administrative weaknesses stemming primarily from the lack of checks, if not the lack of possibilities to carry out checks", regarding registration in municipal registers, the authorities explained. These shortcomings were subsequently exploited by individuals who provided fictitious addresses in Luxembourg in exchange for a fee.
Registration in the municipal registers – combined with employment contracts lacking economic reality, the validation of fake school diplomas, and forged language certificates – enabled more than 200 applicants from third countries to immigrate to the Grand Duchy based on forged documents. These residence permit applicants subsequently received undue social benefits from the Luxembourg state. "At present, the exact financial extent of the damage is not yet known", the public prosecutor's office stated.
As part of an ongoing judicial investigation – which includes charges of corruption, influence peddling, money laundering, forgery and the use of forged documents, subsidy fraud, the illicit smuggling of migrants, and infringements of the law on the free movement of persons and immigration – simultaneous searches were carried out on Tuesday 7 July at several public authorities. These included the Ministry of Home Affairs, the General Directorate of Immigration, and the Ministry of Research and Higher Education, as well as at five companies and the premises of several individuals suspected of involvement in the aforementioned offences.
This marks the 12th search at the Ministry of Home Affairs and the General Directorate of Immigration in connection with the case, and the fourth at the Ministry of Research and Higher Education. Since the judicial investigation was opened in the summer of 2023, a total of 27 searches have been carried out at state administrative bodies and social security institutions. Following the execution of two arrest warrants at the end of 2025, three new arrest warrants were executed on 7 July 2026. As of 6 July 2026, 25 people have been charged in the case. The public prosecutor's office has reminded the public of the principle of the presumption of innocence.
The major operations on 7 July 2026 mobilised three examining magistrates from the Economic and Financial Department of the Luxembourg investigating chambers, two magistrates from the Luxembourg Public Prosecutor's Office, and over 60 police officers. The officers were drawn specifically from the Economic and Financial Crime Department and the Organised Crime Section of the Criminal Police Service (SPJ) as well as the Special Unit of the Luxembourg Police. The searches were carried out in Luxembourg City, as well as in the Central, Southern and Northern regions of the country.
Due to applicable data protection rules, the public prosecutor's office is unable to inform the municipal and state administrations and the social security institutions concerned about the existence of these frauds or the identities of the fraudsters. Under these circumstances, the public prosecutor's office "deeply regrets the lack of a legal basis that would allow it to exchange this information with the relevant administrations in order to enable them to put an end to the detected social benefit frauds."
