Author: Denis Tahiri
At the height of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, Alba Hasani, a 40-year-old (generals changed to preserve anonymity) would falsify the covid test to travel abroad.
"I paid 65 euros for the fake test. I didn't do it because I was infected with Covid, but I did it to be sure it would come out negative as I had heard that there were cases where the result was wrong. And in case of a wrong result, I would have to stay 15 days in Albania, which means that I would also lose my job in Greece and I would have other additional costs to redo the tampon", says the lady, adding that fortunately the Greek police did not do the quick test.
But others at the border with Greece have been subjected to the real test procedure that has confirmed the fictitious procedure followed by the citizen in question. The use of such falsified tests from June 2020 onwards turned into a disturbing phenomenon, especially for migrants returning to their countries of residence. The second ones who did not have any obstacles were the tourists who secured travel opportunities through agencies, which included the test, which many of them never performed. Although "EUROPOL" warned of the phenomenon of test falsification immediately after the first case of a traveler in France was found, in our country, despite the number of cases, there is no conclusion as to whether this trend brought a reorganization of crime in the field of forgery. Or are all the cases disconnected from each other.
Prove for a few lek that you are negative!
"I have traveled to more than 5 EU countries with a fake tampon and mostly within the Balkans", a citizen writes shamelessly on the "SIGNALIZO" platform, according to whom this action is among the most common now.
And to understand how such a certificate is found on the black market, the whistleblower reveals the secret: "There are dozens of laboratories that offer this service without doing any tests. They guarantee answers within 20 minutes".
But how openly the tests are being carried out is confirmed by one of the investigative files at the Tirana prosecutor's office that sent ordering doctors to prison. Arrested as being implicated in this process, the suspects appeared before the court as part of the forgery chain, and among them the owner of a shop, "internet-photocopy-printing", which produced the much-requested letter by order of doctors. In one case, the citizen who was looking for the counterfeit tampon was not even in Albania, and according to the conversations revealed by the phone checks, his associates guaranteed it by replying to you "no problem".
The labs showed the truth
In Albania, the Ministry of Health has accredited 8 laboratories for conducting covid-19 tests, in front of which there are dozens of others who falsify covid tests. The General Directorate of the State Police, when asked about the cases caught for tampon forgery, stated that: "In the last 15 days alone, 20 people have been arrested in Tirana, Durrës, Shkodër and Elbasan, and two laboratories have been seized for counterfeiting covid-19 tampons.
But what is being said unofficially is exactly the complaint that some of the certified labs filed with the local police to find out the individuals using their badge that automatically triggered the wiretapping.
Well-dressed, BK doesn't give the impression of a young vacationer when you see him at airports. The first thing that comes to mind when you see him is that he is most likely a successful young businessman or official traveling for business. In fact, it's quite the opposite, he travels for tourism in 90% of cases and what's more interesting is the fact that during the two years of the pandemic, he never used a tampon.
"I have flown with such tampons so far in Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Croatia. Bulgaria and Norway. The customs check just looks at the name and date and everything goes fine. I have never made a tampon for covid", he says, where after seeing our disbelief, he also shows us the stamps taken in his passport, photos taken in those places with the relevant dates, as well as how he makes the fake tampon.
"To create a fake tampon, I just need to have an original version of a tampon made by someone in the 'PDF' version. The date or the name of the person who performed the original test does not matter, as they are all changeable if I have the document in PDF". he says adding that: "a friend sent me his swab done in a private lab in Albania. I can edit the document in any program that edits PDF. I use Adobe Illustrator. There I change the data in the document to adapt it as I need, add my personal data and the specified date". says the young man, underlining that in most cases, the policemen at customs only refer to the printed test, but even when they scan the QR code, it is almost impossible to tell that it is fake.
"Many digital documents have a QR code. In state documents, that code is important as it refers to the state website and its editing is not simple. In the case of the PCR buffer, the QR code simply has a url that refers to the laboratory's website or simply refers to a website where the same buffer is presented in a digital version. To generate this QR code, a simple google search for "QR Code Generator" is enough. Here I can create my own QR code and put the link I want. In my fake document, my QR code refers the scanner to a website that presents the same document in PDF. Most customs inspectors don't even scan that code at all. Even those who scan it are satisfied with the fact that the code refers somewhere. Even on a simple website like www.google.al . " Something simple for the witness, but for others, although they had the same false report, they got stuck because, based on suspicion, the border police called the relevant laboratory, asking if the person with the ascertained data had been tested or not near the subject in question. When the answer was negative, the citizen was immediately referred to the charge of falsification of health documents, which provides for a fine up to prison.
However, BK insists during the interview "It doesn't seem fair to me to pay several times more than in Europe, a covid test is the reason why I do it", he says.
QR code only for eyes and cheeks
Since the responses of the swab on the printed paper are easier than thought to be manipulated, the QR code should serve as an added element of security that the swab that a citizen presents as a document required for travel during the pandemic is really. In most cases this is not true in Albania.
A QR code has no expiration date, which means that the data placed in it will most likely be accessible even after the owner of the data is no longer in this life. But in the tampons we tried, it turned out that the personal data of the person who performed the tampon was not located in the QR code. Even in cases where they were, it was simply the same scanned document, but without additional security features to make it harder to forge.
In relation to this issue, the Institute of Public Health stated that it did not have information about the QR code and the parameters it had to complete, while for the accreditation of non-public structures that are accredited for RT-PCR tests, the link is available approved document from the Ministry of Health, but none of his words mentions the criteria that should be met by these structures for QR-Cod.
Experts talk about the parameters of the document
Gentian Progni, an IT expert, says that the QR-code must have some parameters that make it difficult to forge it.
"Both the vaccines and the tests have been assigned a license plate, a unique number, which is generated by an internal WHO system, and wherever you do it in the world, that number is assigned and you have it wherever you go," he says, adding that in cases where the QR Code leads to web pages where the data of the person who took the test together with the unique number of the test are not displayed, it is fake, regardless of whether the websites of hospitals or laboratories are displayed.
On the other hand, an official of the Border Police stated that the training of police officers to distinguish whether the test is fake or correct is also a problem. But he did not leave out the negligence of the police in examining the tampon not only in Albania, but also in other countries.
In Albania, tampon prices are agreed between private parties
In Europe, there is already the possibility of testing with a rapid test that can be purchased at the pharmacy, but in Albania, this still seems far away. The only options a citizen has is to choose between the rapid, PCR or antibody test. In Germany, the retail sale of rapid tests started on February 6, 2021, where in supermarkets or pharmacies you could buy a package of 5 tests for only 24,99 euros, which means 5 euros per test.
But how is the situation in Albania compared to the region? From an observation in the region, it turns out that in Kosovo a covid PCR test costs 35 euros, in Montenegro it varies from 40 euros, this price is the same as in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Meanwhile, in North Macedonia it varies from 25-30 euros, this price is the same as the value of a tampon in Turkey. And when we talk about the price of a tampon in Albania, it varies from 50-55 euros.
Officially asked about the high price of tampons in Albania, the Ministry of Health said that it was not within its powers to determine the price of health Services in non-public institutions in the field of health and concretely cannot determine the price for performing RT-testing. PCR for Sars-Covid-2 for administrative purposes.
"However, due to the progress of the epidemiological situation in the country, at the beginning of the tourist season, the very entities recognized by the ministry for carrying out the RT-PCR swab for SARS-Covid-2 for administrative needs have agreed to reduce the prices from 8500 to 6500 thousand ALL"- says the Ministry of Health in its response.
But such a statement not only confirms that Albania has the highest prices in the region for covid tests, but even the fact that the eight entities licensed to carry out these tests have agreed among themselves to match the prices in the market, with the knowledge of the Ministry of Health. Something which is prohibited by law.
