455 Social Media Accounts Flagged for Rolling Out Fake IDs – Europol Reports

455 social media accounts flagged by Europol, which were providing fake identity documents to illegal immigrants.

Europol, the European Union’s regulatory authority, flagged 455 social networking accounts on December 16 that were involved in illegal migrant smuggling from Belarus to Europe.

All of these accounts were targeted as a result of referral actions. This activity was conducted by Europol’s European Migrant Smuggling Center (EMSC) in collaboration with other regulatory bodies including the European Union Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU), Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany.

The key objective of this action was to gather online content that encouraged illicit immigration services from Belarus to the European Union Member States, including social media accounts advertising the sale of fake identity documents, passports, visas, and illegitimate transportation facilities.

“These accounts have been referred to the Online Service Providers with the request to review them against the terms of service,” Europol explained.

The route that was used for migration was heavily advertised to migrants through flagged social media platforms and other messaging applications. Since these platforms and applications were misused, the European regulatory bodies witnessed a spike in departures of illicit migrants and illegal border crossings.

“The new Belarusian migratory route is heavily advertised to migrants on social media and instant messaging applications, which represents a significant pull factor. The misuse of these online platforms by facilitators led to a large increase of departures and irregular border crossings,” the statement of Europol reads.

Due to this reason, the Lithuanian parliament decided to extend its state of emergency to halt the illegal migration services. Under this status, the government has permitted border police to use mental coercion and physical assaults to stop individuals from entering the country. 

Additionally, to deal with the inrush of migrants, the EU Commission has established new standards in early December. The new policies permit the countries in the EU to extend the registration time for asylum to four weeks instead of three or 10 days. 

However, the EU Parliament has agreed to improve the capacity of Europol to curb crime and strengthen border security controls in the EU Member States. In line with the new laws, law enforcement authorities have access to the Schengen Information System (SIS) and exchange information with other regulatory entities to identify and eliminate suspicious activities.

The lack of robust ID verification services is one of the key reasons behind this illegal mass migration. Thereby, the immigration services department must incorporate IDV before the fake identity documents provided by scammers through social media platforms become a problem for all countries.