26 Persons With Links to Terrorist Organisations Have Applied for E-Residency in Estonia
According to the same review, in recent years, following the boom in the fintech sector and virtual currency service permits, people with connections to organisations like Al-Qaeda, Daesh, Hezbollah, the Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhood, have been applying more often for e-residency in Estonia, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
“Since the start of the e-residency programme, KAPO has identified 26 persons associated with Islamist terrorism or extremism who have applied for e-residency or become e-residents,” the report reads.
The Estonian e-residency is a government-issued digital identity for third-country citizens, which was launched back in 2014. It grants foreigners access to all the Estonian e-services that require authentication. At the same time, holders of an e-resident’s digi-ID card can sign documents digitally and log into every portal and access every information system that accepts the Estonian ID-card.
It offers entrepreneurs from outside the EU the possibility to establish a company in Estonia and organise management within the EU, to make transactions in an Internet bank, electronically submit income tax returns, and digitally sign documents and contracts, all while living abroad.
Those establishing a company are then provided with an indirect basis for obtaining a Schengen visa.
According to KAPO, if a foreigner meets all requirements for application and the same has not been involved in police or judicial cooperation with Estonia, then there isn’t a way to know about the security threats they might pose.
However, the report points out that it is important for such people to be detected before they receive the e-residency, as revoking it later after a security threat has been identified is considerably more complicated, more prolonged, and it costs more to the state.
“If a person who has lost their e-residency on this basis pursues the matter in court, the process of revoking e-residency can go on for years. In the future, terrorist organisations, their supporters, extremists, and common criminals will continue to show interest in anonymous electronic money transfer services and the ability to conduct transactions that do not require a physical presence,” the report explains.
It further notes that amongst the main motives of extremists and terrorists for applying for the e-residency program is the attempt to relocate their economic activity out of the supervision and jurisdiction of the security authorities of the country where they reside.
In recent years, Estonia has been taking all kinds of measures in order to make e-residency more secure and prevent those who pose a threat from obtaining it.
On April 1, 2021, Estonia started requiring all applicants to provide additional information when applying for a digital identity card, in order to carry out a more in-depth background check on them.
Whereas in August 2020, Estonia banned internationals who have broken the law and those posing a threat to the public from gaining e-residency. The move followed a report of the National Audit Office that had identified 48 e-residents with Finnish citizenship and a criminal penalty valid in Finland.