Germany: Confessed 24 children, got rich from welfare

Jonathan A. poses in front of luxury German cars or throws bills around - this can be seen on social networks, on videos taken in Nigeria.

However, in Dortmund the gentleman receives social assistance. And not only him: the German state pays for his support for 24 of his children - that is, the children he acknowledged. The mothers are mostly from Nigeria, Jonathan A.'s country of origin.

Since he is a German citizen, the children he recognized, their mothers and other relatives - automatically have the right to stay in Germany. For now there are 94 people, writes Deutsche Welle.

Journalists from the German public service ARD found out that "Jonathan A. alone causes social security costs significantly higher than 1,5 million euros per year."

False paternity due to a loophole

Jonathan A.'s story is considered an example of the abuse of acknowledgment of paternity, which, due to a loophole in the law, is easily possible.

Experts estimate that there have been tens of thousands of cases in recent years, but data is scarce. Only certain suspicious cases are reported to immigration authorities by registry offices, youth protection offices and consular officers at embassies.

Since there is no central registry in Germany for data protection reasons, they cannot see how many children someone has already acknowledged. Only immigration authorities can do that. And most paternities are certified by notaries.

Acknowledgment of paternity is not a crime

Axel Boshamer from the immigration authority of the Arnsberg county government assumes that the number of unreported cases is high. According to Boshamer, the number of suspected cases of false paternity for children born to mothers from West African and Western Balkan countries is increasing in North Rhine-Westphalia.

In the case of Jonathan A., he believes that it is a "systematic abuse of recognition of paternity".

"False paternity is enabling people who actually have no chance of staying in Germany to stay here anyway." These people are willing to pay money for it, usually to a person who assumes fictitious paternity."

And acknowledging paternity is not a criminal offense.

Homeless men as false fathers

Authorities rarely manage to uncover the criminal business model behind it. The Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office is currently indicting a ten-member gang of people of Vietnamese origin "for fraudulent marriages and recognition of paternity."

They allegedly negotiated the recognition of paternity for at least twenty children of mothers from Vietnam in order to obtain residence permits for them in Germany.

In return, they paid between 500 and 1.500 euros to the German "fathers", mainly homeless people, and charged up to 35.000 euros from the mothers from Vietnam, according to investigative public prosecutor Frank Pole.

The public prosecutor sees it as "an occurrence in the environment of Vietnamese citizens or German citizens of Vietnamese origin" in Berlin with its large Vietnamese community. It is often the case that Vietnamese women come to Berlin "to legalize their right to stay here and then move to other provinces".

The recognition can no longer be revoked

In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, authorities assume that most people who have acquired a permanent right to remain as a result of paternity abuse receive long-term welfare and other social security benefits.

Last year, at the request of the interior ministers of the provinces, the federal government was supposed to present a draft law on the adjustment of the current law on the recognition of paternity. For years, they have advocated, together with the ministers of justice of the provinces, to prevent abuses as a preventive measure.

Because once paternity is acknowledged, it remains valid in any case. Once the child is recognized by the German father, it cannot be revoked.

Almost no inspections

Harald Dering, a longtime former Federal Administrative Court judge in immigration law, sees the loophole as "inadequate regulation" that "rarely happens." Even if the father would not claim to have had a relationship with the woman, he could acknowledge paternity. That should therefore change, according to Dering.

The NRW state government presented its own bill in 2017, which later failed in the Bundesrat. This included, among other things, mandatory checks by immigration authorities in cases where the mother's right to stay was legalized by confirming paternity.

In 2017, the Federal Ministry of the Interior "estimated the number of abuse cases to be in the mid-four digits." When it's put into numbers, the "annual burden on taxpayers nationwide" amounts to over €150 million. More current figures are not available.

It turned out that Jonathan A. received state aid in the amount of over 22.500 euros in one month. A group of authorities in Essen has not yet been able to reveal how much he received from the state coffers in total. The reason - data protection.

Meanwhile, Jonathan A, the alleged father of 24 children, has already applied for two more paternity acknowledgements.