'We made it!’ Migrants grin for selfie as they boast of how easy it is to enter Germany
Ammar Mehdia said he would stop at nothing to achieve his dream of making it to Germany when he met an Express.co.uk reporter in Serbia.
Since then, the determined 29-year-old has evaded border controls with friends again and again proving just how many holes there are in Europe’s migrant defences and how easy it was to get in.
Mr Mehdia appears to have a legitimate asylum claim and said he was forced to flee Syria after being captured by Bashir Assad’s secret service three times.
But just days ago a 27-year-old Syrian migrant who was denied asylum in Germany and was waiting to be deported killed himself and injured 15 others in Ansbach.
He detonated a backpack full of explosives Sunday night outside of a music festival in the southern German town.
Mr Mehdia wants to live peacefully in Germany, but his trip shows just how easily anyone with a poisonous vendetta can reach EU countries.
Our migrant’s journey also shows how the Schengen zone simply cannot stop the movement of anyone who is hellbent on reaching western Europe despite laws dictating asylum seekers must register in the first safe territory they arrive at – usually Eastern or southern Europe.
When Express.co.uk met him in April, he said he would make it to Germany despite the closed borders.
He said: “I want to stay and get my life back to normal. If I can’t I don’t know what to do.”
Just weeks later, on June 7, he left the camp for Germany - crossed three borders and has now made it - complete with a smiling selfie.
Our migrant’s journey also shows how the Schengen zone simply cannot stop the movement of anyone who is hellbent on reaching western Europe despite laws dictating asylum seekers must register in the first safe territory they arrive at – usually Eastern or southern Europe.
When Express.co.uk met him in April, he said he would make it to Germany despite the closed borders.
He said: “I want to stay and get my life back to normal. If I can’t I don’t know what to do.”
Just weeks later, on June 7, he left the camp for Germany - crossed three borders and has now made it - complete with a smiling selfie.
