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From the Telegraph
Fresh concerns have been raised about Europe’s ability to protect its frontier after a Telegraph investigation found asylum seekers are managing to enter the Schengen zone undetected and fly on fake ID cards.Syrian, Iraqi and other nationals are walking across Turkey’s land border with Greece, where they are buying fraudulent documents which have been accepted on commercial flights to western Europe. By doing so they are getting around a deal the European Union agreed with Turkey to take back all refugees and migrants arriving on Greek shores.
The Telegraph spoke to three Syrians who made it to the Netherlands this way this year, as well as an Iraqi citizen who reached Belgium. However, Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, admitted the problem was much wider.
The shocking ease with which they made the journey raises serious questions about the EU’s ability to protect its external perimeter, particularly at a time when Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) is looking for ways to send fighters to attack European cities. One Syrian man in his 30s, who wished to use only his first name, Ahmed, told how he paid €1,000 (£880) to a smuggler in Istanbul to help him reach Greece.
“If you have the money, there is a luxury way,” Ahmed said. “We travelled by car from Istanbul to Edirne (in northwest Turkey), then we walked for an hour to the river (Meriç), and from there we got a boat which just took two minutes.” He crossed illegally into Greece, negotiating his way around guards at one of the world’s busiest border gates with the help of the smuggler.
He took a taxi and then a coach to Athens. Once in Athens, Ahmed paid another smuggler €6,000 for a fake Greek ID card. The card bore his photograph but the name of a real Greek citizen. With it he managed to buy a plane ticket to Amsterdam. Under the Schengen Agreement, people are able to travel around EU member states without showing a passport.
During the height of the migrant crisis in the summer of 2015, Greek authorities reported finding up to 200 forged passports and IDs a day at Athens airport. However, the trade was thought to have tailed off after the EU and Turkey signed a deal which saw Ankara stop asylum seekers from crossing by sea to the Greek islands in return for €3 billion in aid.
The agreement all-but halted the perilous journeys made across the Mediterranean from Turkish ports, but alternate routes have since opened up for those able to afford it. The land border crossing into Greece is an expensive option as the risk is high, and smugglers can charge several thousand euros for a fraudulent document.
Ahmed claimed few checks were carried out at the airport in Athens and he was able to board the plane with little questioning.