When I urged the Iraqi smuggler Amjad whom I met by chance in Brussels to find a guaranteed way to get my relative from Turkey to Belgium, he was no longer enthusiastic about the Belarusian-Poland route. ‘’Belarus is getting tough. Look this is our work.’’ said, Amjad.
This investigation reveals a massive market for European passports where human smuggling networks are active in Athens, Istanbul, and European cities to sell look-alike, original, and forged passports of all kinds.
The smuggler showed me a video of people waiting in the forest then a modern private car appeared. The migrants ride in the car and it drives off. This was the traditional smuggling ground route from Turkey to Greece, passing through eastern European countries with the help of a network of smugglers deployed in these countries. Then they go to Belgium, Austria, or Germany while others go to Calais in France to cross to the UK.
The cost of this safe route, as I was assured, from Turkey to Belgium is $12,000 to be paid at different points. When I told him it was too much, he said that it is suitable for the length of the road and the facilities provided by the smuggler. This sum is distributed among several people.
“We’re six people. We are a network of smugglers scattered in many countries. I am not the leader of this network. I am a member of it,” said Amjad.
He told me that the leader of the network lives in Greece.
While he was showing me the video, I noticed a name on TikTok called Abu al-Abed al-Iraqi. I found many videos of immigrants crossing with the smugglers’ men known as ribr. In each video, the smugglers ask migrants to pay tribute to Abu al-Abed al-Iraqi, the leader of the network.
Abu al-Abed al-Iraqi is active on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. He publishes videos of people traveling through Hungary almost daily. The videos thank and praise him and remind everyone of the sums of money to be deposited in the tasheek office.
Tasheek is an important term in the lexicon of migrants and smugglers and an essential stage for every irregular migrant who wants to reach Europe by boat, car, truck, or plane.
Smugglers are easily accessible via TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, where smugglers widely publish videos of refugees crossing this route to promote their activity. For example when writing “Serbia to Hungary,” “Tail Hungary and Serbia,”, “Serbia for Austria.”… etc as we could find that on these social media platforms and assurance of migrants who could reach these smugglers via social media.
Tasheek Offices…Private Financial System
Tasheek officesare scattered in Istanbul, Greece, and some Arab cities. These are illegal money transfer offices. Migrants wishing to begin an irregular migration journey deposit the sums agreed with the smugglers in these offices and receive a document with a secret code given to the smuggler as soon as people arrive at their destination. These offices are somewhat similar to money transfer companies such as Western Union or MoneyGram, but they are illegal.
These offices often operate under the guise of travel agencies and tourism or service companies. They do not have any signs or addresses linked to their activities. They are known only to those who engage in irregular migration through social networks.
We searched for these offices in Istanbul and found a number of them such as Fayyad, Milano, Haftaro, Akram Abu Ali, and Assaf. According to the testimonies of many migrants that we saw in the first week of December 2021, Assaf’s office defrauded many of them of the money they deposited in his office.
Smugglers usually impose the name of a particular tasheek officeon the migrants, suggesting a close link between these offices and smugglers. According to the smugglers we spoke to, some of these offices have branches in European cities.
Look-alike Passport
I assured Amjad that I am looking for an easier, faster, and non-risky way to bring my relative to Belgium. I was surprised then by the idea of a fake passport as an easy and guaranteed way. I was even more surprised to know that this method is very popular, but requires a lot of money.
In European cities, especially Istanbul and Athens, the sale of genuine, look-alike, and fake passports is widespread, due to the presence of thousands of refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan, who are looking for a way to reach the EU.
Smugglers get official European passports from people who stole them, found them, or bought them directly from their owners. On social media, we found various advertisements for similar passports. One of them announces the availability of Greek passports, and another offers different European and Israeli passports and asylum passports for Arab citizens. Those interested should send a photo that the smuggler compares with the original copy of the passport, and if the resemblance is acceptable, the transaction is done in exchange for varying amounts.
When Amjad knew I have a European passport, he smiled and first offered me 5,000 euros for the passport and then 6000 euros when I told him that the amount is small and that he would sell it probably at double the amount he offered.
“Wait, I have a picture of an Iraqi in Istanbul who wants a similar passport, and I think there’s a similarity between you two,” he said. He showed me a photo on his phone of a young man who appeared to be in his late 20s. “I want a copy of your passport to send to this guy in Istanbul. He looks like you’’, said Amjad.
Amjad tried to convince me. “No problem. We can split what we make equally,” he bargained. He contacted me several times via WhatsApp to send him a copy of the passport. I told him that I would send it when I return from traveling.
All I had to do is hand over my passport to the smuggler and then wait for three or four days to report the loss of my passport to the Belgian authorities. By that time, the person who looks like me would have already arrived in the EU using my passport.
Amjad offered me to work with him as a ‘broker’ for 500 euros per person. My job would be to find customers who want to bring relatives to Belgium.
Semi-Regular Migration!
With everything Amjad said and what I saw and read on social media, I was skeptical of how successful he would be passing strict European airports with a look-alike passport, but I realized it was a popular method, according to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).
The Frontex report, published on 30 June 2021, confirms that criminal networks offer irregular migration by air, usually with high fees due to the provision of forged documents. Organized criminals are often involved in the production of fake documents and in illegally obtaining and distributing genuine documents. Fraudulent documents are increasingly traded online. Criminals offer a wide range of genuine or false documents on online marketplaces and use such platforms to receive orders directly from clients. Due to COVID-19 and related travel restrictions, the number of individuals caught at airports with fraudulent documents on entry to the EU/SACs fell by 57% to around 1500 cases in 2020.
Frontex told us that impersonation is a well-known way of misuse of genuine documents by someone else who looks like the document owner. The document itself remains genuine without alteration. Frontex explained that the high similarity between the original and the new holder of the document in some cases may cause border checks and detection of the imposter more challenging. Frontex organizes training on the detection of false documents for border guards and law enforcement to help share expertise on document fraud.
We tried to look for people who entered the EU with fraudulent passports and identify the routes they took. We could document many cases where the use of a genuine passport is one of the most common ways to gain access to EU countries. During this investigation, using fake accounts, we followed social media accounts that migrants use to look for smugglers online.
Market for Travel Documents
We found a thriving market on social media for European, American, Canadian, and Arab passports. Syrian, Yemeni, and Palestinian passports and travel documents can help migrants apply for asylum.
We looked at hundreds of active groups on Instagram and TikTok as well as dozens of pages and accounts on Facebook. We saw passports offered at reasonable prices.
These pages, which are run by professional smugglers, are considered forms of organized crime and human trafficking. They are to blame for many tragedies that occur to migrants through various migration routes.
We contacted Facebook about the smugglers’ accounts. “We continue to invest in technology and people to proactively identify these pages and groups and remove them from our platform when we find them, and we encourage people to report content that they think might break our rules,” Facebook told us.
Hundreds of accounts are still active, posting smuggling offers, various travel documents, irregular migration routes, and prices. Thousands of people follow and interact with these accounts.
In May and June 2022, I contacted several smugglers who are active on social media. I pretended to be a migrant looking for a way to reach an EU country to seek asylum there. I received a lot of offers and a variety of options at varying prices.
In a WhatsApp call, Hammam Bek, a smuggler who works in Istanbul, requested a personal photo of me to compare with his passports.
We processed a fake image with Middle Eastern features and sent it to Hammam. He sent me images of two French passports, as well as an American and a Dutch passport. The owners’ photos were not similar to the image that we sent, but the smuggler assured us that he has more options. He asked me to send him another photo with shorter hair to make it easier to find a match.
One of the French passports I got, was for a 48-year-old art photographer with a studio in the heart of Paris, Mark (pseudonym).
“Wait a minute, you’re telling me they’re offering my passport for sale?”
The biographical information on the passport, including the date of birth, address, height, and name, all match the information provided. Additionally, the photograph on the passport matches the individual presenting it. The passport is confirmed to be valid until 2031, as stated. Overall, all details of the passport are consistent and correct.
Because it is difficult. It takes a while for Mark*, to fully grasp it. A little over a year ago, in October 2021, his home was broken into. His passport was also stolen – he knew that, but the burglars were never traced. ‘’And now you say that they are selling his passport?’’
“I’m going to report this to the police station,” he says. He doesn’t think the new owner can do much with his passport, because he reported it as stolen and had a new one made, but he’s still not sure.
‘’It is not reassuring to have my old passport, which is still valid, in the hands of smugglers. As far as I know, no fraudulent activity has been carried out using my passport. However, it is important to take precautions to avoid any potential misuse of the passport.’’
Hammam Bek and all the smugglers we contacted avoided talking about the source of these many passports and identities. One of the smugglers told us that they get passports from embassies where the passport numbers had not been registered officially. Another smuggler said that they buy them from gangs that steal them.
Hammam al-Rashad, a Syrian smuggler based in Istanbul, said that he has a wide range of genuine and fake passports: Spanish, Italian, Belgian, German, Dominican, and asylum passports of Arab citizens in Germany, Belgium, and Sweden.
He offered an original Belgian passport for €1700, and a counterfeit for €1200. He said that he would be responsible for replacing the original photo, securing the identity card, and changing the passport chip.
In the video, as the smuggler checks the ID card on the scanner to confirm its quality, many European-looking ID cards are visible suggesting that he has many options.
For an additional €5,000, the offer would include traveling to the European destination through Khartoum Airport.
To dispel any fears, the smuggler sent me a video clip that includes a Belgian passport and an identity card. The video explained the difficulty of detecting his passports on scanners. He said that people used the same passport and they successfully reached the destination country.
He told me to send the data, photo, and signature and pay a €300 deposit to the smuggler through an intermediary in Istanbul to receive a video of the new passport. To receive the passport and Belgian identity card, I would have to pay the remaining amount through the same intermediary.
Abu Iyad, another Syrian smuggler based in Istanbul, offered a complete package for travel from Istanbul to Belgium, including an original Dutch passport, identity card, and tickets for €10,500.
According to his plan, the owner of the original passport, who sold it, will travel from the Netherlands to Istanbul, then the original photo will be changed by laser, and my photo will be placed. He explained that the entry stamp to Istanbul will help me travel to Amsterdam without any problems. He would also provide help at Sabiha airport.
In such cases, the owner of the original passport does not leave until the other person arrives in the destination country, tears up the passport, and seeks asylum. Once the irregular migrant arrives, the passport owner goes to his country’s consulate to claim that he has lost his passport and request a new one.
We also looked for other smugglers. Abu Ali offered an original European passport and travel from Izmir to Athens and then to Belgium by air for €9,500 to be paid at a tasheek office in Istanbul, Izmir, or Athens.
When we contacted an Athens-based smuggler called Abu Mustafa via WhatsApp, he asked for a photo. We processed one and sent it. He sent us a French passport. The photo in the passport was reasonably similar to the processed photo, and the price was set at €4,500.
Abu Mustafa told us that providing a passport and travel plan would not take more than two days and that traveling with the passport would be easy.
Abu Mustafa asked me if I speak English in case I get questioned at the airport. I said that I speak a little bit and asked him if he speaks English. He said that he speaks Dutch, as he used to live between the Netherlands and Germany.
This passport dealer followed up with a lot of calls and WhatsApp messages. He was trying to rush us to seal the deal.
Nasir Moayad is another smuggler active in Athens. To travel to Belgium by air within a week, he offered to provide the travel document of an Arab asylum seeker that was 60% similar to the image we will send him. He said that he would then change the features of its original owner so that the similarity with the image of the irregular migrant can reach 90%.
Moayad’s offer also included accompanying us on the same flight until we arrive in the Belgian capital, Brussels, for €5,000.
For many reasons, we could not continue contacting smugglers, but we tried to search for people who did that.
Look-alike Passports at European Airports
Siraj (pseudonym), is a 38-year-old Syrian who could not have imagined that he would arrive effortlessly in Brussels with an Irish passport. He, along with others, had traveled hundreds of kilometers in the mountains between Turkey and Greece, guided by google maps to arrive in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.
In Thessaloniki, which is full of migrants and smugglers, Siraj had the idea of buying a passport. He reached out to a Syrian smuggler in Athens who asked him for a photo and some information such as height and weight. Two days later, he informed him of the availability of an Irish passport with an identity card for €5,000.
Siraj traveled directly to Athens, met the smuggler, scheduled a travel date, and booked a flight ticket. The smuggler provided him with a negative PCR test in the name of the Irish person.
The young Syrian did not face any trouble at Athens airport. He was not asked by customs or airport police to remove his COVID-19 face mask to see his face. According to him, he was lucky that day because ten people were arrested at Athens airport while trying to travel with falsified passports.
Siraj’s flight to Belgium passed through Milan’s Malpensa airport. He then flew the following morning from Linate airport, the city’s second airport, to Brussels Charleroi airport, south of the Belgian capital. In all these airports, the security authorities did not discover his falsified passport.
As soon as he arrived at Brussels Charleroi Airport, an Arab man came to him and said, “Quietly give me the passport without looking at me.” He took the passport and disappeared into the crowd. The man was on the same flight from Milan to Brussels on a mission to get the passport back for re-use in the entry of other migrants.
Two-Year Journey
Mohamed Al-Ahmeed is a 32-year man who belongs to the Bedoon community in Kuwait, a group of stateless people who had lived in Kuwait for generations but the Kuwaiti government has refused to give them any documentation papers. He started his journey at the beginning of 2019 and reached Britain, his final destination, in August 2021. During his journey, he passed through 10 European countries from Georgia to Turkey.
Al-Ahmeed had to obtain a Kuwaiti travel document to start his journey. After paying money to an official, who is currently in jail, he was able to obtain a Kuwaiti travel document issued to Bedoon people in cases of medical treatment and study. This document does not entitle him to a Schengen visa. It is different from the official Kuwaiti passport in color and privileges.
Al-Ahmeed tried to cross into Greece from Izmir, but he was arrested. He claimed to be Palestinian to avoid deportation since Yemenis and Palestinians are not deported in Turkey. He failed to answer detailed questions about Palestine. The Turkish police assumed that he was a Syrian national and deported him along with other Syrians to Idlib in March 2019.
Al-Ahmeed was able to return to Turkey with the help of Syrian smugglers for €700. In Izmir, he reached out to an Iraqi smuggler who was able to help him cross into the Greek island of Samos for €1,200. He stayed there for about two years, and his asylum request was rejected twice.
With the help of a Palestinian smuggler, Al-Ahmeed managed to reach Athens. Then he decided to buy a European passport. For three and a half months, Al-Ahmeed tried to travel through Athens airport with falsified passports: Belgian and Swedish. Another time, he tried to travel with a Danish identity card that he purchased from a Kurdish smuggler for €7,000 after depositing the money at Hahaftaro in Istanbul.
All his attempts failed. He was arrested at Athens airport and was released for the first time. The second time he was arrested and imprisoned for four days. The last time, he signed a pledge that if he tried again, he would face imprisonment and a fine.
Despite the fame and high demand for falsified passports, attempts are not always successful. Many irregular migrants are arrested at airports. The European authorities sometimes dismantle networks of smugglers.
After his failed attempts, Al-Ahmeed decided to take the ground route from Thessaloniki to eastern Europe with the help of an Iraqi smuggler. He was deported to Turkey when the Greek army arrested him.
Al-Ahmeed remained in Turkey for a month. He then used the Kuwaiti travel document to go to Albania and then to Serbia with the help of smugglers. He was lucky as the Albanian authorities couldn’t differentiate between a Kuwaiti travel document and a passport. He tried to cross into Romania, Croatia, and Hungary, but all attempts failed.
According to Al-Ahmeed, it is easy to reach smugglers in Serbia. You go to refugee camps and find them. “Smugglers are easily accessible via TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram where they widely publish videos of refugees crossing this route to promote their activities,” said Al-Ahmeed.
After 18 attempts, Al-Ahmeed succeeded in crossing from Serbia to Romania in the truck of a Syrian smuggler. He stayed at the smuggler’s small apartment in Romania with 120 people for two days, then traveled to Paris and Calais where thousands of migrants were trying to reach Britain.
In Calais, Al-Ahmeed reached out to an Iraqi-Kurdish smuggler who had delivered groups of migrants and asylum seekers to the UK for £2,100 paid after arrival and secured through an intermediary in Britain. After two failed attempts, he was successful in August 2021 when he and his companions entered the British territorial waters in a boat carrying about 80 people. He applied for asylum pending a decision in Sheffield.
The Dark Web World
In general, passports and travel documents are the tip of the iceberg in the so-called ‘dark web’. Technological progress has facilitated the sale of everything that comes to mind on the internet.
Privacy Affairs sets the price of various of these services in 2022. Prices vary according to the type of passport or identity to be sold. French, Polish, and Maltese passports, for example, have an average price of €3,800. Identity cards for EU countries are about €160, while an American driver’s license is €150.
To verify the status of the rest of the passports sent to us by smugglers, we chose some of them and searched for the accounts of their owners on social media using the data and photos on those passports. We sent them questions about how their passports and IDs ended up in the hands of smugglers. As of the publication of this investigation, we have not received a response from them.
Most of the smugglers that we contacted confirmed that the passports they sent us are genuine and valid. They purchased them from their owners or may have been stolen, obtained by fraud, or forged based on real data and photos of their owners.
According to Frontex, smugglers, and passport dealers often sell original documents, which are difficult to detect at the borders of the EU. In cases of reported loss or theft of a passport, it is automatically deleted from the records at border crossings.
We also contacted the authorities concerned with issuing passports in Belgium and France to enquire about the status of the same passports that were sent to us by smugglers. We asked them how they deal with such cases of exploitation of migrants by the travel document mafia. As of the publication of this investigation, we have not yet received any response.
There is no escape for migrants and European asylum seekers from falling into the smugglers’ trap and entering the passport market auction. Delusions, dreams, and courage born out of the womb of suffering push them to an experience which the smuggler “Abu Mustafa” describes to us, as certainly to others, with the phrase “You travel with your job as a teacher and get down, as a doctor.” that might still be better than spending 20 days in the trunk of a truck, or a bitter journey between the banks of the Evros River on the Turkish-Greek border.
