A loophole in the law is causing thousands of abuses: men recognize paternity for foreign children who are not theirs. In return, the children and their mothers receive residence permits and social benefits.
Jonathan A. poses with a luxury fleet of German cars in Nigeria and throws banknotes around. He calls himself there: “Mr. Cash Money”. However, the authorities in Dortmund, where he is registered, consider him to be destitute.
According to information from, the 24 children of various women, especially from African countries, whom he has recognized ARD contrasts and rbb24 research the German state. Most of the mothers come from Nigeria, Jonathan A’s country of origin. Because he is German, the recognized children, their mothers and other relatives automatically have the right to remain in Germany through family reunification. So far there are 94 people.
Apparent paternity through a loophole in the law
Jonathan A.’s story is considered an example of the abuse of paternity recognition, which is easily possible due to a loophole in the law. Experts estimate that there have been tens of thousands of cases in recent years; the data available is sparse. Only specific suspected cases are reported to the immigration authorities by the certifying bodies, i.e. by registry offices, youth welfare offices and consular officials in the embassies. Because there is no central civil status register in Germany for data protection reasons, they cannot see how many children an applicant has already recognized before paternity is recognized. Only the immigration authorities can do that. And most paternities are certified by notaries.
Abusive Paternity recognition not punishable
Axel Boshammer from the upper immigration authority of the Arnsberg district government assumes that the number of unreported cases is high. According to Boshammer, suspected cases of children born to mothers from West African countries and countries in the Western Balkans are increasing in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the case of Jonathan A., he assumes “systematic abuse of paternity recognition”.
“Sham paternity is about allowing people who actually have no prospects of staying in Germany to stay in Germany. These people are willing to pay money for this, usually to the person who takes on the fictitious paternity.” Misuse of paternity recognition is not a criminal offense.
Charges are rare
The authorities rarely manage to uncover a criminal business model behind it. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office is currently bringing charges against a ten-member gang of people of Vietnamese origin “for smuggling in through sham marriages and acknowledgments of paternity.” They are said to have arranged paternity recognition for at least 20 children for mothers from Vietnam in order to obtain a residence permit for them in Germany. In return, they paid German “fathers” from the homeless community a hand money of between 500 and 1,500 euros and collected up to 35,000 euros from the mothers from Vietnam, according to the investigating public prosecutor Frank Pohle.
The public prosecutor sees this as a “phenomenon in the milieu of Vietnamese nationals or German nationals of Vietnamese origin” in Berlin with its large Vietnamese community. It is often the case that Vietnamese women come to Berlin specifically “to legalize their right of residence here and then move to other federal states.”
Recognition can no longer be canceled
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the authorities assume that most people who have acquired a permanent right to remain as a result of an abusive recognition of paternity receive long-term social transfer benefits. That’s why the municipal job center in the city of Wuppertal contacted the state Ministry of the Interior with a corresponding warning. This warning indicator is lying ARD contrasts before.
Last year, at the request of the interior ministers of the federal states, the federal government was supposed to present a draft law to adapt the current law on recognition of paternity. For years they have been pushing, together with the justice ministers of the federal states, to prevent abuse. Because once a certification has taken place, it remains effective in any case. Once a child has been recognized by a German father, this cannot be revoked.
Hardly any inspections by authorities
Harald Döring, a long-time former judge at the Federal Administrative Court in the area of immigration law, sees the legal loophole as an “inadequate regulation” that “rarely occurs.” Even if the father did not claim that he had a relationship with the woman, he could acknowledge paternity. “That is also a reason that we have to build in some prerequisites here, for example a family social relationship,” says Döring. However, this is currently not being checked at all by the certifying bodies.
The NRW state government presented its own draft law in 2017, which later failed in the Federal Council. This involved, among other things, mandatory controls by the immigration authorities in cases in which the mother’s right of residence is legalized by certifying paternity.
Costs nationwide are more than 150 million euros
In 2017, the Federal Ministry of the Interior put “the number of cases of abuse at a mid-four-digit number,” according to an internal evaluation by the “Ruhr Security Cooperation.” ARD contrasts is present. The merger of authorities puts the “annual nationwide burden on taxpayers” at over 150 million euros. More current figures are not available.
With a view to the individual case of Jonathan A., the authors of this report have extrapolated that “this man alone causes costs for the social security funds of significantly more than 1.5 million euros per year,” says co-author Andreas Keppke. His team used individual cases of alleged abuse of paternity recognition to evaluate the damage this causes to taxpayers.
Legal regulations are pending
During the course of police investigations, it was discovered that Jonathan A. received state benefits amounting to over 22,500 euros in one month received through the responsible family fund. The group of authorities in Essen has not yet been able to disclose how much he received in total from state coffers – for data protection reasons.
The Federal Ministry of Justice announced this week at the request of ARD contrasts that a draft law should be presented promptly. The ministry did not give an exact date. Meanwhile, Jonathan A., the supposedly penniless father of 24 children, has already applied for two more paternity acknowledgments.