Dubai-based German diplomat detained for role in human trafficking http://www.irna.ir/ENNewsShow.aspx?NID=30412034&SRCH=1

A German diplomat assigned to the consulate general in Dubai is being kept in pre-trial detention in Berlin for his role in human trafficking, press reports said here Tuesday. The unidentified 40-year-old head of the visa section of the German diplomatic mission in Dubai is accused in at least eight cases of helping human trafficking bands which smuggled people from Afghanistan via Dubai to Germany.  Last December, Germany's foreign ministry was reportedly rocked by a major bribes-for-visas scandal.

Several German embassies were suspected of having accepted bribes from human  trafficking rings in exchange of issuing visas. German diplomatic missions in Africa, South America and the countries of the former Soviet Union were reportedly affected in the latest scandal. 

The accused were local employees based in the consular section of German diplomatic missions in the respective country.They were suspected of systematically issuing visas dating back to 2008 based on wrong information. The local consular employees who were fired from their jobs, were accused of having received several hundred euros in cash in exchange for issuing visas, according to Berlin prosecutors. The German foreign ministry was also at the center of a similar scandal in 2005 after it was revealed that the German embassy in Kiev had issued thousands of visas for Ukrainian crime figures and prostitutes.