TIMES INVESTIGATION

Forgers fix EU passports for Brazil’s poor

Gangs exploit rules that allow those of Italian or Portuguese descent to move back to Europe
Hundreds from rural Brazil are paying gangs to create bogus family histories which will allow them to obtain European passports
Hundreds from rural Brazil are paying gangs to create bogus family histories which will allow them to obtain European passports
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Criminal gangs in Brazil are providing fake documents allowing people to obtain passports for EU countries, potentially opening the door to a new life in Britain, The Times has learnt.

Desperate to escape poverty in rural Brazil, hundreds pay gangs about £10,000 a time for bogus family histories so that they can apply for passports in the land of their ancestors’ birth.

Millions of Italians and Portuguese emigrated to Brazil in the past 200 years to flee economic hardship or political unrest. Today their descendants can apply for passports from these European Union countries, which would allow them to move to Britain.

Portuguese police told The Times that they were investigating hundreds of cases of passport fraud involving Brazilians but admitted that it was hard