A Pakistani identity card in the bushes, a Bangladeshi one in a cornfield. A torn Iraqi driver’s license bearing the photograph of a man with a Saddam-style mustache, another one with a scarfed woman displaying a shy smile.
Documents scattered only meters from Serbia’s border with Hungary provide evidence that many of the migrants flooding Europe to escape war or poverty are scrapping their true nationalities and likely assuming new ones just as they enter the EU.
Many of the travelers believe that using a fake document — or having none at all — gives them a better of chance of receiving asylum in Germany and other western European nations. That is because the surest route to asylum is to be a refugee from war and not an economic migrant fleeing poverty. That fact has led to a huge influx of people claiming to be Syrian.
Photo: Reuters
Serbian border police say that 90 percent of those arriving from Macedonia, about 3,000 a day, claim they are Syrian, although they have no documents to prove it. The so-called Balkan corridor for the migrant flight starts in Turkey, then goes through Macedonia and Serbia before entering the EU in Hungary.
“You can see that something is fishy when most of those who cross into Serbia enter January first as the date of their birth,” border police officer Miroslav Jovic said. “Guess that’s the first date that comes to their mind.”
The chief of the EU border agency, Frontex, said that trafficking in fake Syrian passports has increased.
“A lot of people enter Turkey with fake Syrian papers, because they know that they’ll get asylum in the EU more easily,” Fabrice Leggeri said.
In Germany, customs authorities have intercepted packages mailed to Germany containing Syrian passports, both genuine and counterfeit, the finance ministry said.
Syrians transiting through Serbia are concerned about the trend.
“Everyone says they are Syrian, even those who are obviously not,” said Kamal Saleh, pointing toward a group of people camping in a Belgrade park. “That is not good for us Syrians because of limited number of people who will get the asylum.”
Saleh left everyone he loves back in Syria — his wife, a baby boy and a shattered home in a Damascus suburb — but, unlike many other migrants surging into Europe, he feels fortunate: he has a Syrian passport that he keeps carefully wrapped in a plastic folder and tucked inside his secret trouser pocket. The document, if genuine, should prove that he is a refugee fleeing war and not a migrant fleeing poverty or economic hardship. A huge difference when asylum applications are considered.
His fellow countryman, who identified himself only as Yemen, added: “There are too many people saying we are from Syria, but he is not from Syria. He is black and he said: ‘I am from Syria.’ Unbelievable.”
International aid agencies estimate that nearly 340,000 people have sought to cross EU borders since January. Two-thirds of the latest European arrivals are believed to be from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea — nations considered by international aid groups to be “refugee producing states,” due to ongoing war or records of human rights abuses.
EU rules say the nation where a migrant first arrives must process the asylum claim, but Germany last week abolished that obligation for Syrians, triggering a surge of people trying to travel through the EU to get there, adding that only refugees fleeing for their life, and not those fleeing poverty, would be allowed to stay.
Aware of the potential asylum rejection, many migrants fleeing poverty are getting rid of their identity documents altogether.
Among those who had no second thoughts about ditching their true identity was Rafik from Pakistan.
“I’m leaving my old life behind,” said Rafik, who gave only his first name because he feared repercussions when applying for asylum in Germany.
“I’m starting a new one. I don’t have a passport, nor any other identity paper,” he said, as he dashed under a fence into Hungary.
“Let’s see which country they will choose to kick me back to,” he added.
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