ISIS fighters and economic
migrants are able to buy Syrian identity documents that allow them to hide
among refugees travelling to Europe with frightening ease, an investigation by
MailOnline can reveal.
Our reporter was able to buy a
Syrian passport, identity card and driving licence from a fraudster in a
Turkish border town this week.
The genuine documents were stolen
from Syria when they were blank. The forger added our reporter's picture and
gave him the identity of a Syrian man from Aleppo killed last year.
The documents, on sale for around
$2,000, would help an asylum claim in Europe.
The forger who sold us the papers,
said that they are being used by ISIS fanatics to travel undetected across
borders into Europe hidden among tens of thousands of genuine refugees fleeing
the terror and destruction.
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.'
The revelation comes as Lebanon
warned two in every 100 Syrian migrants smuggled into Europe are ISIS-trained
fanatics, with most travelling overland through Turkey to Greece.
The extremist group is sending
trained jihadists 'under cover' to attack targets in the west, Lebanese
Education Minister Elias Bousaab told British Prime Minister David Cameron
during his visit to the country on Monday.
'ISIS will not stop at the border
with Lebanon, before you know it ISIS will be in Europe,' Mr Bousaab
claimed.
The bogus papers are also being used by economic migrants from other
Middle Eastern states who know that a Syrian asylum claim will be met with more
sympathy following the civil war which has so far forced an estimated four
million people to flee.
The recent death of Aylan Kurdi,
the three-year-old boy pictured after he was washed up on a Turkish shore, has
heightened demands for countries to take in Syrian refugees and propelled their
plight to the top of the international agenda.
Germany alone is expected to take
in a million Syrians this year and is putting other European nations under
pressure to sign up to a quota system.
The forger told MailOnline:
'Everyone wants to be Syrian now – because now everyone welcomes Syrians'
He said: 'The ease with which a fake Syrian identity card has been
obtained so easily is deeply disturbing. It is essential that all countries
need to obtain the necessary equipment to check the validity of these
documents. This represents a huge problem that needs to be addressed
immediately.'
Philip Hollobone, C Conservative
MP for Kettering, said the MailOnline investigation had brought a serious
security to light.
He said: 'I would like to
congratulate MailOnline for your work in exposing this very serious security issue.
'There is little doubt that evil
jihadists will be keen to exploit the present refugee crisis to infiltrate
their way into Europe and the UK. In the present chaos fake passports provide
almost perfect cover.
'The UK Border Force will need to
be extra vigilant to separate genuine refugees from ISIS operatives.'
Philip Davies, Conservative MP for
Shipley, said: 'This is a very worrying development and highlights why we need
to properly control our borders and not get so get so overwhelmed by a compassionate
desire to help people that we let down our guard.
'There are many people who want to
exploit our generosity and the Government must not let it happen.'
MailOnline has contacted the
Turkish authorities to inform them of the scam.
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