Romania is undergoing another wave of large-scale searches, which reveal houses and apartments in which citizens of other countries were fictitiously registered, as well as officials who facilitated the acquisition of citizenship on the basis of false documents.
This week, nearly 100 searches took place in the offices of state institutions and in the homes of individuals, among them civil servants from Suceava county who issued false Romanian identity documents to some Moldovan, Russian and Ukrainian citizens. In Botosanj County, 206 searches were carried out, resulting in the detention of two civil servants and the placement of two others under judicial control.
The aim of the investigation is to dismantle a network that, through civil servants from the Population Registration Service and town halls, issued Romanian identity documents that were not true in terms of place of residence for persons born in the former Soviet Union. The unreal data refers to a fake certificate of residence of a person, which is fictitious because the beneficiary never lived at that address. And it was issued solely for the purpose of obtaining an identity document and Romanian citizenship.
“The beneficiaries obtained identity cards with the establishment of residence in buildings owned by Romanian citizens who were not the owners of the premises concerned (unsuitable or decommissioned buildings) or without the consent of the owners, by making false applications to take possession of the premises and, in fact, without their presence in front of an official from the Identity Records Service,” Romanian prosecutors claim.
In such circumstances, it is not surprising to hear the statement of the Moldovan ambassador to Romania, Victor Chirila, who said in June that 1.3 million Moldovans already have Romanian citizenship and another 130,000 people are waiting to obtain it.
What does the revealed falsification of documents threaten?
As one of such beneficiaries told Logos Press, the Romanian authorities can take away the identity card, but not the Romanian passport. And the buletin (if the address of registration indicated in it is on the stop list), is seized only at land borders. Therefore, you should travel to and from Romania only with a passport and use your ID card inside the country.
