Two employees at Hamburg’s Ausländerbehörde (Foreigners’ Office) have been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes in return for residence permits.

Hamburg immigration office staff arrested on bribery suspicion

Two employees working at the Ausländerbehörde in Hamburg have been arrested on the suspicion that they accepted bribes in return for issuing residence documents to people who did not meet the requirements for a residence permit.

The arrest was announced by the Hamburg authorities on February 12 after the police searched the office in Hamburg and issued arrest warrants on February 9.

“The two Hamburg Service employees are suspected of repeatedly issuing residence permits to unauthorised foreigners since September 2022, both jointly and commercially as employees of various locations and in return for cash provisions of a not insignificant amount via intermediaries,” said Liddy Oechtering, press officer for the public prosecutor.

Residence permit holders are also being investigated

The public prosecutor also announced that it had opened bribery investigations into eight people, who are suspected of holding the residence permits which were issued illegally.

Investigations first began in the autumn of 2022, after somebody reported the two Hamburg employees via a “corruption whistleblower system” on Hamburg’s Department for Internal Investigations' portal.

Thumb image credit: Bartolomiej Pietrzyk / Shutterstock.com