As countries commit to accepting more Syrian refugees, the trade in forged Syrian passports is thriving.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa have made their way to Europe this year, paying smugglers and putting their lives at risk in order to make treacherous and dangerous sea crossings before trekking overland in hopes of being accepted in wealthier and more secure European countries.
But some feel posing as Syrian refugee gives them the best chance at being accepted into a new country, especially considering Germany said it would break EU rules accept Syrian refugees while other asylum seekers would have to make their claims in the EU state where they first arrived.
For legitimate Syrian refugees, those pretending to have escaped their country’s brutal civil war is one more frustrating challenge in trying to find peace and security.
“Look at these people, what are they doing here? We are the ones who are fleeing from war and slaughter, and now these men are taking away our space,” the Washington Post reported a 62-year-old Syrian named Mustafa saying at the train station in Vienna, Austria.
The Washington Post described “well-dressed Iranians speaking Farsi who insist they are members of the persecuted Yazidis of Iraq” and “Indians who don’t speak Arabic but say they are from Damascus.”
And some of those posing as victims of war are making no apologies.
“I am illegal, not refugee,” a man identifying himself as a 27-year-old Algerian named Hamza told the Post. “In my country, the only thing you can do there is either drugs or crimes. So I was in prison several times, for drugs, also for trying to kill another guy.” He recounted being offered food and shelter since telling people he came from Damascus.
READ MORE: Christians say Syrian refugee crisis could affect how they vote in federal election
Not even speaking a word of Arabic in some cases, some of those migrants are purchasing fake documents and passing themselves off as Syrians.
A reporter with the British newspaper the Telegraph claimed he was able to strike a deal for a boat ride between Turkey and Greece that included a false Syrian passport for 2,000 British pounds (approximately CDN $4,070).
Gordon Rayner wrote he struck the deal after contacting a smuggler through a Facebook group, called The Travellers’ Platform, and making just one phone call.
“Our reporter said he was concerned that he would be deported when he got to Greece. Would it be possible to get fake Syrian papers?” the Telegraph reported.
“‘It is possible,’ came the reply, ‘but it will cost you a lot – about $1,500 to $2,000 (£1,000 – £1,300). It’s not guaranteed that it will work, as it’s forged, so there is a danger you will be discovered.'”
The Telegraph learned it can cost just a few hundred euros to secure a false Syrian passport.
“You can buy a Syrian passport for 200 or 300 euros. Iraqi people sell them in Istanbul in secret places. They can tell people’s countries from their look, and they go to them on the street. There are people from Iraq, Jordan, Egypt who pretend to be Syrian,” the Telegraph reported 18-year-old Syrian “Elias” saying.
Nick Fagge, a reporter with the British tabloid the Daily Mail, published photos of the forged Syrian passport, licence and identity card he said he obtained through a broker along the Syria-Turkey border. The whole package cost him US $2,000.
Fagge reported “the trade was rife, both for Syrians who’d lost their documents but also other people… seeking a new identity or pretending to be Syrian.”
The documents Fagge reportedly bought were in the name of a Syrian man killed in Aleppo last year. The forger he obtained the documents from alleged ISIS supporters are “among the people going to Europe in this way.”
Europe’s border agency, Frontex, knows false documents are a problem — as an example, some 10,000 forged Syrian passports were seized in Bulgaria last month — but the agency’s executive director, Fabrice Leggeri, tried to assuage fears the situation will lead to terrorists infiltrating Europe.
READ MORE: Reality Check: Are refugees an economic burden?
Leggeri told a French radio host, on Sept. 1, there was “no evidence to say that potential terrorists have come into Europe like this.” But he went on to say Europe needed to be “vigilant on all our borders.”
The agency is planning to soon increase its staff in Greece in “an effort that may help the agency to identify more false refugees,” the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Overwhelmed by the refugee and asylum seeker crisis, the European Union approved a plan to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers, primarily from entry point countries Greece and Italy, among its 28-member nations.
Comments