Germany 'overwhelmed' with false asylum seekers' Syrian passports
Source: dailymail.co.uk
A huge number of claims for asylum that are supported by passports and identity cards that appear to be false, a police forensic expert has revealed.
MailOnline highlighted the roaring trade in false Syrian documents in September.
The exclusive story revealed how a reporter bought a Syrian passport, identity card and driving licence for $2000 under the name of a real man who was killed in Aleppo.
Police forgery expert Joerg Aehnlich told MailOnline: ‘I know their documents are false but I cannot give evidence in court that they [the asylum seekers] are not Syrian because I cannot prove it.’
Migrants are using documents stolen from Syrian refugees, identity cards manufactured to order or simply papers borrowed from friends and relatives to support their asylum application, Mr Aehnlich, of the Lower Saxony Criminal Forensic Institute has revealed.
This means applications for refugee status have been allowed to proceed because the authorities cannot prove they are fake.
He told MailOnline: ‘Some of the passports contain the false personal information in fake documents, some passports contain genuine personal information in fake documents and some passports contain genuine personal information in genuine documents. But we cannot prove which ones are genuine and which are false.’
Mr Aehnlich is one of just a handful of forgery experts in Germany that are called upon to provide expert opinions on documents in contested asylum application cases.
But he, and others like him, have been inundated with work since the migration crisis exploded in Europe this year.
Fake: German forgery expert Joerg Aehnlich says he can't find enough evidence to prove the passports are false as they are often counterfeits made from genuine papers
Germany expects at least 800,000 asylum seekers this year, with some estimates as high as 1.5 million. Some 15,000 migrants crossed into the country from Austria in a single weekend.
The largest number of migrants are refugees escaping the war in Syria, some 38 per cent, followed by Eritrean fleeing the brutal dictatorship in the tiny Horn of African state.
But there are also people from Balkan countries such as Kosovo and Albania – as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and North Africa, who are exploiting the situation to seek a new life in Europe.
This has led to a roaring trade in fake Syrian documents, which are used to support asylum claims, Mr Aehnlich claims.
He told MailOnline: ‘Syrian documents have become very valuable because they can be used to claim asylum here [in Germany].
‘Refugees fleeing the fighting in Syria are robbed when they cross the border into Turkey and their documents are sold.
‘Forgers are manufacturing fake passports, identity cards and other papers to order in Turkey – for the right price.’
However Syrians who have lost their legitimate documents are also replacing them with forgeries as they are extremely difficult to replace, due to the civil war that has divided the country.
Mr Aehnlich said: ‘Some [Syrian] people feel this is the only way to get their documents – to go through a forger. We have stopped batches of Syrian passports sent to Germany in the post.’
The genuine documents in the passport obtained by MailOnline were stolen from Syria when they were blank and then the forger added our reporter's picture and gave him the identity of a Syrian man from Aleppo killed last year.
The forger who created the documents boasted that ISIS fighters – as well as economic migrants exploiting the refugee crisis to seek a better life – are using fake papers to travel to Europe.
Once in Europe they can set up sleeper cells or live freely under a new identity without facing the consequences of their brutal past actions.
As the forger chillingly put it: 'ISIS fighters are among the people going to Europe in this way. They are going to wait for the right time to become a fighter for ISIS again.'
Following an analysis of the fake Syrian passport police forgery expert Joerg Aehnlich confirmed: ‘This is genuine, this is a real Syrian passport.’
The passport book MailOnline acquired is authentic, made from a batch seized from one of the many Syrian government offices captured by advancing opposition forces.
Syria’s Booming Fake Passport Trade
Fake: Reporter Nick Fagge bought a forged Syrian passport in southern Turkey for $2,000
Business has boomed in Lebanon and along the Turkish border with Syria for document forgers as refugees looking to start a new life find themselves 'paperless' after fleeing their country's brutal civil war.
Everything from exam certificate transcripts to driver's licences and passports can be forged for a price and are a necessity for refugees trying to start a new life.
In Turkey, which hosts up to 2.5 million refugees, Syrians need a passport to rent a flat, stay in a hotel, open a bank account and even to buy a sim card.
Forgers buy 'empty' passports without pictures or information from government officials, or from fighters who seize them from government offices.
Syrian passports do not have modern security features such as biometric chips, making them easier to forge.
Fake passports have been sold for as little as $700 in Syrian opposition held town of Azaz in September.
The Syrian Government announced this month that it has made more than $500 million in passport fees as it doubled the cost of buying a legitimate Syrian passport abroad from $200 to $400 for a brand new document, and $200 to renew.
According to Al-Watan, a pro-Assad daily newspaper, the Syrian government issued 829,000 passports this year - about 3,000 a day.
The forger explained that the militias fighting the forces of Assad make a beeline for government offices when they over-run a town. They know the value of the documents there and steal the passports, papers and even the printers that are used to create identity cards and driving licences.
'I don't know which town this passport came from because it has happened many times,' said the forger, who wanted to remain anonymous.
'Fighters – from the Free Syrian Army, Al Nusra, ISIS or whatever – they know the value of these documents. They take them and they give them to us. They ask us to make new identities for them and their families so they can travel outside Syria.
We do this for them and they leave us some of the books so we can sell them. There are many people – Syrian people – who have lost their passports and identity cards because of the chaos of the war. They want new documents to help them in Europe.'
He went on: 'Everyone wants to be Syrian now – because now everyone welcomes Syrians. There are Palestinians, Egyptians, Iraqis, people from all over the Arab world who are pretending to be Syrian so they can have a new life in Europe.
Frontex, the EU border agency, has reported an increase in the seizure of Syrian passports for sale although they admit they as yet have no idea of the size of the problem.
'The latest figures confirm that document fraud is on the rise,' a spokesman told MailOnline. 'Imposters use another person's documents taking advantage of their physical resemblance to the original holders, as often difficult to identify.
'Research studies show that the extent of the problem is much wider than can be assessed from the number of revealed cases.
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