If a man acknowledges paternity of a child without actually being the father, perhaps because he receives money for it or wants to protect the mother from deportation, he should be able to be prosecuted more consistently than before. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) wants to use a new law to prevent so-called pseudo fathers from improperly acknowledging paternity. However, it is unknown how many such cases there are in Germany.
“Abusive recognition of paternity is an unscrupulous ploy to circumvent immigration law. The fake father trick costs our social security funds horrendous sums every year,” explained Justice Minister Buschmann when presenting a draft bill that is to be discussed quickly. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) also wants to ensure that “such abuse of the law is uncovered and clearly sanctioned before it is recognized”.
On Thursday, the support came primarily from the Union. “We must prevent social benefits from being stolen or our citizenship law being undermined through abusive recognition of paternity,” says Alexander Throm (CDU), the Union’s domestic policy spokesman in the Bundestag. The Union has been demanding this since the reporting on “Mr Cash Money”.
In one case, a man is said to have recognized 24 children of different origins
This refers to a report from the broadcaster RBB from February, which dealt with untruthful recognition of paternity. A registrar noticed that men had acknowledged paternity of several children whose mothers were obliged to leave the country. In one case, a man is said to have recognized 24 children of different origins in exchange for money. Because he claimed to be destitute, the state had to pay for the maintenance of the children.
Buschmann now wants to prevent such cases. His house emphasizes that they are not reacting to a television report, but have already started planning a law earlier. Essentially, it is intended to relieve the burden on certifying bodies such as youth welfare offices or notaries. Currently, if there is evidence of cheating when acknowledging paternity, they are supposed to suspend the certification and inform the immigration authorities. They should be exempt from this “non-professional” obligation in the future. Often, Buschmann suspects, the immigration authorities are not informed at all because the authorities responsible for the certification are unfamiliar with the right of residence.
The new law stipulates that registry offices automatically declare any application for recognition of paternity to be a “test case” in which there is a “difference in residence rights” – for example if a man with a German passport wants to recognize the paternity of children of a woman who only has a temporary residence permit . Buschmann does not want this to be understood as a general suspicion against binational partnerships with different residence statuses. Every couple can prove that paternity exists using a genetic test. However, the burden of proof lies with the parents.
The immigration authorities should check
The immigration authorities should examine all other cases with a “difference in residence rights,” explains Buschmann. An indication of apparent paternity is that the mother and father cannot communicate, the man has already recognized children of other foreign mothers several times or the couple does not cooperate. However, the law considers an indication of actual paternity if the woman and man have been registered in the same household for six months, the man has contact with the children or pays maintenance. If the immigration authorities do not respond for four months, paternity will be recognized. However, it can also be revoked retroactively, for five years, if false information is provided. False information can be punished with up to one year in prison.
How common are such cases of fraud? For the last few years there are only speculations, the Ministry of Justice said. Between 2018 and 2021, around 290 abusive paternity acknowledgments were identified. “Experts estimate that there have been tens of thousands of such cases in recent years,” says SPD parliamentary group vice-president Dirk Wiese. Helge Limburg, legal policy spokesman for the Green Party, warns of inaccuracy in the new law: “The regulation must be targeted against the few who abuse the law and must not impose unnecessary hurdles on family reunification for the vast majority of families.”