In the following video you’ll see Italian reporters visit the Nigerian embassy undercover to find out how easy it is to obtain official ID documents for imaginary people. It turns out to be REALLY easy — fill out the form, hand over a photo, pay your €50, and PRESTO! You get a consular ID card. Which is the first step on the road to an official Italian residency permit.

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00 His name is Peter Wodere, and he doesn’t exist.

00:05 “How Easy It Is to Make a False Nigerian Document”

00:10 A large number of immigrants arrive in Italy.

00:13 The entire political system runs this —redo

00:17 Receive them or reject them. We also have another problem today.

00:22 The institutions truly know the identities of the people who live in our country.

00:26 We ask because we have received a signal.

00:30 The Nigerian Embassy in Italy would issue documents

00:33 without verifying the identity of the requestors.

00:36 And we decided to investigate.

00:39 We go to the website of the Nigerian embassy and this is what is written:

00:42 To obtain a certificate of nationality you need

00:45 A letter from a NGO, or from a local authority or any other document

00:51 that identifies the applicant as a Nigerian, along with two photographs. Cost: €50.

00:56 Timeline for delivery: 24 hours.

00:59 We go to verify this ourselves inside the embassy, and this is what they tell us.

01:03 I have a person who doesn’t have documents. He is a refugee, but

01:07 He has no Nigerian document, but he is Nigerian,

01:10 and needs to make documents all over again. He has to do the document of nationality.

01:15 He doesn’t have anything. —Fiscal code.

01:18 The fiscal code I can do online for him. —You do it online. And he has only

01:21 fiscal code and photo. —You do it online. Yes, yes, yes.

01:24 —We can do it? How much? —€50.

01:27 But to have a certificate of nationality, you don’t need any document, but only a fiscal code.

01:32 And with that you give me a ID card? —ID card, yes. So with that ID card, however,

01:35 one can go and apply for a (residence) permit? —Yes, yes.

01:38 —And if the (ID) data for the person are false? —Let’s go to work.

01:41 We manipulate the photograph with a common registry program.

01:45 We create two men and a woman. Let’s see…

01:50 an Italian fiscal code and [unintelligible]. In the first case, we follow the ordinary procedure

01:54 Wait in line at the window.

01:58 Payment of the €50 requested.

02:05 And the wait, so much waiting.

02:11 But at the end of the day, here is the first document.

02:18 I’m here. —Thank you. —His name is Peter Wodere, and he doesn’t exist.

02:24 In the second case, an embassy employee offers to facilitate the deal

02:28 Come, come, come. But quick, OK? I do this thing fast, and then I’m going. Give me €50.

02:33 Yes, but bring me a receipt. But you’ll have the receipt when it’s ready.

02:38 It’s either that or you sleep there.

02:42 And there is the second document. —Is it OK?

02:47 Yes. —His name is Allright Nnemombe, and he doesn’t exist.

02:52 In the third case, we used the so-called facilitator,

02:57 whom we meet outside the embassy. —You have to give me €10.

03:00 But we’ll do it today? —For €10, he has us fill out a form.

03:03 —Two spouses. Yes, yes, yes, spouses.

03:07 And then one of them accompanies us inside the embassy

03:11 Go with him. Go with him.

03:15 Give me €50. —€50? Yes.

03:18 —Come. [Unintelligible] outside, we ask him to collect the documents for us.

03:23 OK. C’mon. I’ll call you around two. Maybe you pick (them) up and we’ll meet here

03:27 OK. Good. — OK?

03:31 Which he does punctually. —Is everything in order? —Everything is OK.

03:35 Let me see. OK, the address is correct. Perfect. —So this is good

03:38 for the residence permit — everything.

03:41 Yes, this is good. —This is enough? With this they know where you come from.

03:46 Her name is Enola Usonlade, and she also doesn’t exist.

03:50 We have obtained three authentic consular (ID) cards,

03:53 which contain certification of identity and nationality of persons who do not exist.

03:57 These are all the effects of identity cards.

04:00 They are the first step in obtaining a Nigerian passport,

04:04 and they can be absolutely used for the first issuance of a residency permit.

04:08 So with that ID card, however, one can go and ask for the residency permit?

04:11 Yes, Yes. —And they’ll give it to him? —Yes. They’ll give it to him.

04:16 And then with the (residency) permit, he can do the Nigerian passport?

04:19 Yes. —But how is it possible that it is so easy to obtain documents with no identity?

04:25 Simple. Listen to what an embassy employee told us.

04:28 But how does one know if this is a Nigerian? —We know even by (his) tribe.

04:33 There are so many ways to know the Nigerians.

04:36 There isn’t an electronic system? —Umm, no. Not now.

04:40 Understand? In Nigeria, a digital registry doesn’t exist.

04:44 But how does one arrive here without documents?

04:48 Because they come here by sea, right?

04:51 According to the commission that is trying to computerize a Nigerian registry,

04:55 there must be 100 million people with false ID documents.

04:59 We’ll see you tomorrow, then— I’ll have him come. Or can I come like this…?

05:03 It would be better if you came. Who knows him.

05:07 And the lack of certainty of the identity of so many people

05:10 is a real problem, especially in times like these.