The recent scandal involving fraudulent residency permits in Luxembourg is not limited to the General Department of Immigration, according to findings by the public prosecutor.
While opposition MPs last week called for audits to extend beyond immigration to other state administrations, the prosecutor has already pinpointed significant systemic weaknesses across multiple agencies implicated in the process.
This follows the summer announcement of a major investigation into suspected corruption and forgery tied to the issuance of work-based residency permits for non-EU nationals.
As a reminder, the case concerns suspicions that several people, including employees of the General Department of Immigration, collaborated to issue residence permits, based on forged documents, in exchange for money.
This does not concern applicants for international protection (DPIs) but rather "guest workers" from third countries who come to work for Luxembourgish companies.
Several administrative bodies play a role in the process of granting such a permit, and the public prosecutor has already identified fairly clearly where the weaknesses in that process lie.
The public prosecutor has already concluded several plea agreements this summer, not with those orchestrating the fraud, but with individuals who obtained residency permits through illegal means.
These judgments set out, in detail, the various administrative vulnerabilities that allowed the fraud to occur, particularly those tied to the documents applicants are required to submit.
A key document is the ADEM certificate from the National Employment Service (ADEM), which a company must obtain if it wants to recruit a non-EU national.
The company is required to advertise the job, and if no suitable candidate is found locally, ADEM can issue the certificate.
However, certain sectors in Luxembourg are officially recognised as suffering from a shortage of labour, making it easier to obtain approval for foreign recruitment.
According to testimony from an immigration official cited in police reports, it is "really easy" to obtain an ADEM certificate to hire anyone you want from abroad, due to these labour shortages.
Some companies appear to have become particularly skilled in drafting job profiles that align with shortage lists, thus increasing their chances of receiving approval.
Searches have also been conducted at several firms suspected of exploiting these loopholes.
An excerpt from one judgment highlights the issue: "Regarding the language certificate required by ADEM, the check performed by officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs is purely formal, limited to confirming the presence of a diploma or certificate in the application, without requiring applicants to demonstrate language proficiency in person. Given the shortage lists published by ADEM, it is extremely easy to obtain a certificate that enables the employment of any chosen individual, regardless of their country of origin."
Employment contracts have also proven problematic.
In some cases, fake contracts were submitted to the immigration authority, despite the fact that the employees were not registered with National Insurance Centre (CCSS).
In other instances, applicants received contracts for highly qualified, high-salary positions to pass the initial screening, only to be downgraded to lesser roles on lower pay after arrival, contrary to the conditions under which the permit was granted.
All of this could have been detected if authorities systematically checked affiliation with the CCSS.
Diplomas must be formally recognised by the Ministry of Education.
However, the prosecutor notes that, due to data protection regulations, ministry officials cannot directly contact foreign educational institutions to verify the authenticity of diplomas.
With thousands of applications to process each year, it is not feasible to interview every applicant with their original diploma.
Even doing so would not guarantee that the presented documents are genuine.
Notably, before an incident in December 2023, the procedures for diploma recognition were not documented in writing, but rather supposedly "a priori" known to staff.
A judgment excerpt states: "Indeed, the internal procedures regarding diploma recognition were never written down, but were considered 'a priori known', and it was only on 5 December 2023, following an incident, that a detailed service note was issued describing how to handle requests for recognition of diplomas, certificates of education, and professional qualifications."
Language skills, for instance, required on the ADEM certificate were often attested to with fake documents.
Many applicants claimed to speak fluent German or French, but these claims went unchecked since the immigration service only verified that a certificate was present in the file, not whether the person could actually speak the language.
As a result, applicants who could neither say "Bonjour" nor "Guten Tag" still had their paperwork accepted.
One reason is that immigration authorities sometimes approved cases without a residence certificate from the local commune, relying solely on a rental contract as proof of address.
An audit of the Directorate of Immigration is already underway and is expected to be completed after the All Saints’ school holidays.
