Photo has been used for illustrative purpose.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

An Arab young man forged a European residency card and tried to use it to travel to Italy via Dubai International Airport.

The passport officer detected the forgery. The Dubai Criminal Court convicted him, and sentenced him to one month in jail, to be followed by deportation and confiscated the forged document.

Details of the case date back to January 2022, when a Dubai passports officer discovered a forged European residency card in the possession of an Arab person trying to travel with it to Italy.

According to the testimony of the passport officer in interrogations, he doubted the validity of the residency card the young man presented to leave the country. He also discovered it was fake, so the young man was referred to the Public Prosecution where he was interrogated.

According to the case papers, the young man, 24, confessed that 6 months ago, while he was in his homeland, he contacted a tourism office specialised in obtaining visas and residency, and asked them to help him travel to Italy, to work in it to improve his living situation. He added that the office gave him a residence card for European country, which they claimed it was valid and enables him to enter any country of the European Union.

The young man added that he bought the card at 4,000 euros after handing a personal photo, and that he decided to visit the UAE before leaving for Italy with the residence card in his possession.