US embassy cable - 05SOFIA2003

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SOFIA 002003 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR CA/FPP AND ASYLUM OFFICE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS, KFRD, ASEC, BU 
SUBJECT: Bulgarians Making False Asylum Claims, Part II 
 
Ref: Sofia 1868 
 
1.  Summary:  As noted reftel, we are seeing growing numbers 
of following-to-join (Visas 92) Immigrant Visa cases where 
it is obvious the original successful asylum seekers based 
their claims on fraud, lies, forged documents and false 
pretenses.  On November 14 alone we received five such 
cases.  We are still in the process of investigating these, 
but we report on other worrisome examples below.  We will 
continue to provide background on Visas 92 cases that fit 
the identified fraud pattern, and we are grateful to USCIS 
officials and consular officers for their interest in and 
responses to our first report.  We look forward to fruitful 
future cooperation on this front.  End Summary. 
 
2.  Evidence abounds here that creating phony documents to 
bolster asylum claims made by Bulgarians in the U.S. is now 
a booming industry.  As some West European countries 
(Belgium, for instance) have decided to deny political 
asylum to Bulgarian citizens in light of Bulgaria's expected 
accession to the European Union, and others (like Norway) 
simply deport in summary fashion the hundreds of Bulgarians 
who apply for asylum, the United States has become the main 
target for prospective Bulgarian asylum seekers.  Word is 
out that if they go to the U.S. and apply for asylum 
claiming they are Roma, they will easily be granted legal 
status.  We have heard of immigration attorneys in the U.S. 
who explicitly give such advice to their clients. 
 
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ATTORNEY TELLS BULGARIAN CITIZEN TO CLAIM HE IS ROMA 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
3.  A few months ago we interviewed Veselin Dragomirov 
Dimitranov (DPOB 21 MAR 1961, Bulgaria, A No. A75 709 982) 
in connection with his application for a CR-1 immigrant visa 
as husband of an American citizen.  In the course of the 
interview we learned that he had applied for political 
asylum in the U.S. as a Macedonian.  He was denied and 
ordered removed.  He told us he had been advised by his 
attorney to claim Roma ethnicity in order to gain asylum, 
because that was easy and claiming asylum as a Macedonian 
would likely not work.  Dimitranov explained he found such a 
lie exceedingly distasteful -- it was simply "beyond him" -- 
and preferred instead to file as a Macedonian, his father's 
nationality.  He signed the following statement (grammar not 
changed): "Since October 1999 we have discussed with my 
lawyer Mr. Peter Ashman do I have a good reason to stay 
legally in U.S.  He told me there is an easy way to stay in 
U.S. if I want to declare that I am a gypsy from Bulgaria." 
In addition to his own statement that he is not Roma, 
Dimitranov's appearance and speech would lead any even semi- 
informed observer to that conclusion.  Yet he very well 
might have obtained asylum had he followed his lawyer's 
advice.  There are no doubt increasing numbers of Bulgarians 
here and (illegally) stateside who have come to learn the 
"Roma card" can make a winning hand for a green card, and we 
know there are unscrupulous attorneys encouraging them to 
play it. 
 
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FATHER AND SON DISAGREE ON POLITICS 
----------------------------------- 
 
4.  Milka Pavlevska applied for her Visa 92 status here in 
November, 2004.  The I-730 Petition was filed by her husband 
Slavtcho Tsvetanov Pavlevski (DPOB 27 JAN 1949, Bulgaria, A 
No. A95 306 523).  Pavlevski had been granted political 
asylum based on his supposedly well-grounded fear of 
persecution as an ethnic Roma in Bulgaria.  On his asylum 
application Form I-589 he stated: "I and all my family are 
ethnic Roma from the Kardarashi group.  I am a member of the 
Roma organization United Roma.  My son is still an active 
member of the same organization."  His statement contains a 
long and heartrending history of arrests and abuse.  In the 
course of the follow-to-join interview, though, Mrs. 
Pavlevska categorically denied that she is Roma.  We got in 
touch with Pavlevski's son following the interview with Mrs. 
Pavlevska, again to investigate the true character of the 
petitioner's asylum claim.  Unsurprisingly, fundamental 
discrepancies popped up which revealed the petitioner's 
patent phoniness.  Pavlevski's son claimed that he and his 
father were members of Euroroma -- a different Roma 
political party than the one shown on the asylum 
application.  However, the son did not know any members of 
this organization.  He stated that he is not Roma, does not 
speak the Roma language, and has never had any problems at 
school or at his job.  He told the officer that criminals 
had once tried to get his family to pay protection money, 
but this all-too-common petty extortion had nothing to do 
with politics or ethnicity. 
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PERSECUTED BLUE-EYED ROMA 
------------------------- 
 
5.  Bulgarians of Roma descent are usually readily 
identified by their dark complexion and specific accent. 
However, when a blue-eyed Caucasian person who does not 
speak the Roma language and has no knowledge of Roma culture 
or customs applies for Visa 92 status insisting she and 
members of her family have been persecuted because of their 
Roma ethnicity, an officer can be forgiven for becoming 
skeptical.  Such was the case when Sofia Dimitrova Morfova 
and her two children were interviewed in connection with 
their Visa 92 application.  Her husband Delyan Vladislavov 
Morfov (DPOB 05 OCT 1974, Bulgaria, A No. A96-219-164) had 
been one of the "Romas" granted political asylum in the U.S. 
Mrs. Morfova signed a sworn statement utterly refuting the 
asylum claims of her husband. 
 
6.  Morfov had sought political asylum based on race, 
political opinion, membership in a particular group, and the 
Anti-Torture Convention.  He stated that he was a member of 
a Roma Organization which advocates for equal treatment of 
Romas in Bulgaria.  His wife, while explaining -- more than 
a little surprisingly, considering the alleged circumstances 
-- that she is not aware of her husband's political 
leanings, said her husband never spoke of any mistreatment 
and never bore any visible signs of physical abuse.  Morfov 
had written on his asylum application: "My family and I have 
been persecuted on account of our Roma ethnicity by 
Bulgarian police, citizens and members of Skin Head 
Organizations.  Throughout my life, my family and I have 
been the victims of persecution at the hands of members of 
Bulgarian society."  His wife, though, told us that her 
husband's "mother, father and brother Yavor have never been 
beaten up or arrested by the police and they have never been 
maltreated or persecuted by other persons or by skinhead 
groups.  Neither I nor our children have ever been beaten 
up, arrested or detained by the police, nor have we been 
beaten up or persecuted by other persons or organizations." 
 
7.  As proof of persecution, Morfov had presented a medical 
certificate issued on October 18, 2002, shortly before he 
departed Bulgaria to the United States.  The medical 
certificate says he had been severely beaten in a 
discotheque, suffering injuries to the thorax, abdomen and 
head.  His wife had no recollection of this alleged 
harrowing incident.  We checked with the director of the 
hospital which supposedly issued the medical certificate, 
and he told us there was no record of Morfov ever having 
been treated there.  The ID number of the certificate Morfov 
presented is in fact associated with the record of a 
different patient. 
 
8.  Morfov's lack of credibility is aptly demonstrated by a 
quick review of his several previous NIV applications (all 
refusals).  He declared in these, variously, that he was 
both the manager of a company "Morfi 3" in the city of 
Burgas and the Marketing Manager of Cafe Club Havana, also 
in Burgas.  In his asylum declarations he also claimed he 
was the Cafe Club Havana Manager/Owner and that between 9/94 
and 1/02 he worked in construction or as a janitor.  His 
wife stated that since the date of their marriage (11/21/98) 
until his departure to the U.S. her husband worked as a 
bartender at the Club Havana Caf, and that he has never had 
a company registered in his name nor was he the owner of a 
company.  In the course of one NIV interview (on 12/29/02) 
Morfov had tried to convince the consular officer that he 
was going to the U.S. to participate in a chess tournament. 
His wife revealed that he is not a chess player and has 
never participated in any chess tournaments. 
 
 
9.  Morfov swore on his I-589 that he resided in the Roma 
ghetto of the village of Rosen.  A check by post's Fraud 
Prevention Unit with the local authorities confirmed our 
suspicion that Morfov had in fact never lived in that 
village, and was unknown there.  Mrs. Morfova does not speak 
the Roma language, though she said her husband speaks some 
Roma.  While it is possible that Mr. Morfov is acquainted 
with several stock Roma phrases, a follow-on interview in 
Roma would almost certainly demonstrate that he does not 
actually know the language.  His parents are supposedly 
Roma, but when we called his father it quickly became clear 
that the father does not speak or understand Roma. 
 
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WHEN A POMAK IS NOT A POMAK 
--------------------------- 
10.  Petya Vasileva Kaneva, nee Baneva (DPOB 20 MAY 1970, 
Bulgarira, Alien No. A97 586 545), was granted political 
asylum on the basis of her claim to be a gypsy of the 
"Pomak" persuasion (Bulgarian Muslim).  She alleged that she 
was discriminated against and humiliated by Bulgarian 
society.  In her written statement for her asylum case, she 
said that her father had belonged to a minority of Muslim 
Bulgarian gypsies and had died before she was born.  She 
explained that she grew up with her mother's family, also 
Muslim Roma, in the village of Konare, and had a child.  The 
child's father, she claimed, had deserted her, and she had 
to move to a different town because of the constant 
discrimination and ostracizing in her mother's village. She 
said she was raped and beaten by four policemen in her new 
village and hospitalized for days as a result. 
 
11.  Baneva's mother accompanied her grandson to his V-92 
follow-to-join interview.  We asked her very simple 
questions in order to verify the credibility of her 
daughter's statements. The discrepancies between the two 
stories turned out to be -- familiarly -- enormous. 
Baneva's mother said her daughter left her home village of 
Konare with the rest of the family at the age of 13 and has 
not lived there since. Baneva's mother was married in 1965 
and together with her husband she raised their two children. 
Her husband died in 1999.  The family is Bulgarian and all 
their relatives are ethnically Bulgarian and Christians. 
According to Baneva's mother, Baneva lived with her parents 
until 1992 when she got married.  She was married for 6 
years, and her mother categorically stated there were no 
arrests, detentions, or problems with the police for Baneva 
in Bulgaria, nor had Baneva ever been hospitalized for any 
reason. 
 
12.  Conclusion:  The cases described above provide more 
evidence of the increasingly strong and significant trend of 
false asylum claims by Bulgarians in the U.S.  The 
Bulgarians misrepresent themselves as members of the Roma 
community, and fabricate stories of long-standing abuse and 
maltreatment.  They posit facts and present documents which 
we might quickly be able to prove false if we were notified 
while the asylum applications were still pending.  Continued 
close cooperation between USCIS and Post in investigating 
pending cases could be expected not only to prevent granting 
asylum to phony claimants, but to generally slow a dangerous 
fraud trend and weaken the widespread impression that any 
Bulgarian seeking a surefire scheme for U.S. permanent 
residency need look no further than "the Roma con." 
 
Beyrle