Kazakhstan is awash in fake vaccination passports

PEOPLE TEND to join dating apps to find love. But social-media users in Kazakhstan swipe right for less romantic services. On an array of platforms hustlers now do a roaring trade in fake vaccination documents.

“Vaccination passport without the vaccination” is how one account offers to register you in Kazakhstan’s e-government system. This then gives you an electronic vaccination passport, so far mainly for use only within the country, at a cost of up to $70, around 12% of the average monthly wage.

Why pay when vaccinations and vaccine passports are free of charge? One reason is that many Kazakhstanis are anti-vaxxers but need a certificate to go to work. Everyone in direct contact with the public—from waiters and shop assistants to shoe repairers and dry cleaners—must produce vaccination passports, unless they have medical exemptions or have recently had the virus.

Kazakhstan’s health-care system is one of the country’s most corrupt sectors. A black market in fake exemption certificates and in forged covid-19 tests showing a negative result is thriving. The penalty for forgery is up to four years in prison, but the chances of being caught are slim. The police as well as medical staff can often be bribed. Since President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered action over this “direct threat to public health and security...