2 days ago
An employee at the Cologne branch of Germany's immigration office and her husband have been arrested for allegedly operating inside a human smuggling network that fraudulently brought Indian men into the European Union, according to a report by Bild.
The four-person criminal operation exploited the EU’s family reunification framework. Indian nationals traveled to Cyprus and entered into sham marriages with Bulgarian women they had never met. The immigration official, identified as Subha L., then processed and authorized residence permits for the men despite visible irregularities in their documentation. Bild reported that Subha L. and her husband collected at least €76,000 (approximately $85,000) from the illegal scheme.
A defense attorney for one of the suspected accomplices told broadcaster WDR that more than 20 Indian men gained entry to the EU through the operation. Subha L. was arrested alongside her husband in December 2025 and remains in pre-trial detention. The Cologne immigration office confirmed she has been fired from her position, and a trial for all four suspects is scheduled to open in February. The immigration authority stated on Thursday that it has revoked the permits issued by the group and established stricter oversight procedures to catch suspicious files more quickly.
The scandal sparked criticism from Seif, a lawmaker representing German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. Seif called on the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees to audit the Cologne branch, telling the newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger:
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