Border officers on alert after first cases of fake Covid-19 certs

Gardai operate a Covid-19 checkpoint at the entrance to Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport earlier this week. Picture: Colin Keegan

Border officers are on alert for international travellers using fake Covid-19 negative test certificates after finding the first such cases this week.

Two males were attempting to enter Dublin Airport when members of the Border Management Unit became suspicious of the passports they were travelling on.

They referred the matter to officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau, which works alongside the Border Management Unit.

They determined the passports did not belong to them. They also discovered the men had what appeared to be medical certificates stating they had an antigen test for Covid-19 and were negative.

They became suspicious of the contents of the document. It was on headed paper and issued from Lagos, Nigeria.

On further examination, they determined it was false — the first cases in the country.

One of the males, aged 52, travelled on a British passport. A younger male, aged 21, was travelling on a dual Nigerian-British passport.

Gardaí are aware of the "huge potential" for abuse in this area and border officers have been made aware of the case.

Europol issued a warning earlier this week about the trade in fake Covid-19 certificates and cited the involvement of an Irish organised crime network, the Rathkeale Rovers, in the trade.