The Belarusian Trap

I didn’t know when I met by accident Amjad, a 43-year-old Iraqi man at a police station in Brussels where he gently asked me to translate a document for him, that he is one of the migrants’ smugglers, and he didn’t know about my journalism work.
This coincidence later led me to know a lot of leads about the smuggling of refugees from Belarus to EU countries, what is happening at the borders, and the various smuggling routes.

Through testimonies documenting tragic humanitarian stories at the borders, documents, and analysis of airline data and the number of flights, this investigation reveals how Belarus organized a massive influx of migrants to its borders with the European Union within a few months, and how illegal migration has become an organized industry run by groups in twisted ways and innovative tricks that have penetrated the European security measures.

The two-part investigation relied on interviews with immigrant victims dreaming of reaching a European paradise and interviews with individuals, smugglers and networks involved in human trafficking. The investigation also relied on some official statistics.

“Would you like to bring him to Germany, or Belgium?’’ That’s how Amjad gave me the option.   During a phone call, I made to him when I pretended that a relative of mine was in Turkey and looking for a way to reach one of the EU countries.

I knew afterward that Amjad is one of the assistants of Abu al-Abed al-Iraqi, one of the most famous smugglers on social media. He said to me in a confident tone: “Once your relative arrives in Belarus, our men will bring him in our cars to Belgium or Germany, and he can choose his final destination.”

Thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Asia chose to put their fate in the hands of smugglers, who were lured to come to Belarus by organized and intensive flights and unprecedented visa facilities or without visas for citizens of some countries, then upon their arrival in Minsk, most of them were forced to go to the borders to cross into Poland, Lithuania, Latvia then Germany and Belgium.

Back to Facebook accounts, I could find many pages and groups that simply promote illegal migration through human smugglers or their brokers such as (Migration from Belarus to Europe– a Belarus visa, and going to Germany via Belarus- Poland immigration to Europe ... ).  They declare that migrants can be delivered to Germany by sending them to loading points (GPS points to a point inside Poland where the smugglers’ cars pick them up), after paying the required amounts at what they call “Tasheek” offices (Deposit money offices are illegal offices widely spread in Istanbul and Athena).

Through many meetings with migrants who arrived in Europe or those who were not lucky, they repeatedly mentioned to me the names of some smugglers such as Abu Jabal, Abu Mohammed al-Qalamouni, and Ala’ Eddin. 

Through the months of (December 2021- Jan and Feb 2022), I went undercover and communicated with those smugglers as an immigrant in Minsk who would like to go to Belgium. The three smugglers said that there are two options, the first of which is to walk through GPS points sent by the smuggler to me, then walk to the loading points where the cars of the smugglers wait to cross us to Poland, and this option costs 2500 Euros until we reach Germany. The second option is to cross with the smuggler’s guide known in the smugglers’ dictionary as Riber (someone aware of the roads and forests who lead the group to the cars’ point), and this option costs 4,500 Euros to 6500 Euros to reach Germany.

Among other reasons, Abu Jabal told me that he has a house in Warsaw, Poland, where migrants rest in the middle of their hard journey for a day and then move on their journey to Germany and from Germany to the desired destination if Germany is not their destination.

The smugglers also said they would send us to Germany and from there they have their own drivers’ network that can deliver us to Belgium or any other EU country for an additional amount. Abu Mohammed al-Qalamouni also sent me videos via WhatsApp for Egyptians who had just arrived in Europe through him to motivate me to travel with him.

The smugglers did not mind that I would put the amount agreed with them at one of the money insurance offices that existed in Istanbul, and when I suggested keeping the money at ‘’Hahaftaro’’(one of the well-known illegal money insurance offices in Istanbul that smugglers and migrants deal with) office in Istanbul, there was no objection. 

 

Hybrid warfare… Barbed wires Game

Belarus has borders with five countries, including three EU countries: Latvia (170 km), Lithuania (639 km), Poland (417 km), Russia (1,311 km), and Ukraine (1,110 km), and most migrants head to the Polish border as the easiest access to Germany as a major destination country, and at a lesser extent to Lithuania and Latvia.  

According to preliminary figures compiled by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) published in January 2022, the total number of illegal crossings to the EU borders in 2021 was around 200,000, the highest figure since 2017, representing a 36% increase from 2019 and a 57% increase compared to 2020. 

One of the main factors of this crisis in 2021 was undoubtedly the situation on the borders with Belarus, the use of migration in a mixed process targeting the EU’s external borders, according to the Frontex report. 

On the eastern land borders (Belarus and Ukraine), nearly 8,000 illegal border crossings were detected in 2021, more than ten times higher than in 2020, when figures peaked in the second half of 2021, with migration pressure first concentrated on the Lithuanian border then shifted to the Polish and Latvian borders.

According to Lithuanian government statistics published on their website, there are 4,337 irregular migrants crossed from Belarus to Lithuania in 2021 till February 8, 2022, with Iraqis accounting for the largest percentage (2,858 migrants), Congo (203 migrants), Syrians (179 migrants) and Afghans (101 migrants) and other nationalities, including Yemenis, Algerians, Tunisians, and Moroccans.

Since the beginning of 2021, Polish border guards have recorded nearly 40,000 attempts to cross the Polish-Belarusian borders illegally. Data show that in December 2021 there were 1.700 illegal crossing attempts, and in November 2021 there were 8.900 attempts to cross the borders illegally, and in October 17.9 thousand attempts to cross the borders illegally, the highest month for illegal crossing attempts. In September 7.700 attempted to cross the border illegally and in August 3.500 attempted to cross the border illegally. 

Despite the cold weather and stopped flights from the Middle East to Minsk, the beginning of 2022, has already witnessed more than 1,000 attempts to cross the borders illegally from Belarus to Poland in January 2022, mainly by citizens of Iraq and Syria, according to the Polish Border Service.

German authorities also recorded the arrival of more than 11,000 migrants and asylum seekers in the country in 2021, most of them crossed from Belarus via Poland, noting that the Polish-German border is the hot spot of this route which was used by thousands of migrants, including the Yemeni Ghamdan el-Awlaqi.

 

The Belarusian trap

“It’s a dirty war between the Poles and Belarus, we’re its weapon,” says 27-year-old Yemeni Ghamdan el-Awlaqi, who was hiding at the time of our first interview in one of Minsk’s apartments for fear of being deported to Syria or Yemen after four failed crossing attempts into Poland and Lithuania.

He spent 25 years as a refugee in Syria since his father, a Yemeni army officer, fled Yemen in 1996. Ghamdan heard of the Belarusian route, visa, and travel facilities, completed the procedures, and agreed with a smuggler named “Abu Jabal” in advance to smuggle him from Poland to Germany for 2,500 Euros. He left Damascus International Airport via “Cham Wings” airlines to Minsk on October 20, 2021. 

As soon as Ghamdan and his companions arrived at the Belarusian-Polish borders, they were put with others in a military truck by border guards. Then moved to a border area with Poland, the Belarussian border guards lifted the barbed wire and ordered them to cross ‘’ we had to cross the river then the forest walking for four kilometers with wet clothes up to the cars’ loading point’’.

In that freezing weather, Ghamdan catch a cold and fever and could not complete the journey, so he stayed in the forest for a day and a half until 25 migrants were passing along the same route came then he joined them, but they did not succeed in reaching their destination: “The Polish border guards arrested us despite our pleas, they put us in a car, brought us back to the borders, opened the barbed wire and forced us to cross back into Belarus”.  This was the first failed crossing attempt by Ghamdan.

After returning to Belarus, everyone was placed in a Belarusian border guard’s camp, and left without food ‘’ anyone asked to return to Minsk, was severely beaten’’ says Ghamdan.

There were many human traffickers’ ‘’brokers’’ in the place taking advantage of the tiredness and frustration of the returnees and asking for $2,000 from anyone wishing to return to Minsk. 

On the second day, Belarusian border guards forced Ghamdan and his companions to wake up at 2 a.m., where they put them back in a truck that drove them to a border point and opened the barbed wire for them to cross into Poland.

“I kept walking for four days with two Iraqi families inside the Polish forests, but we were arrested 1.5 kilometers before the supposed loading point’’. The Polish guards put them in a camp closer to being a prison as Ghamdan said. Ghamdan has been interrogated many times, on suspicion of being Riber for the two families he was moving with.  (“Riber” is like a guide and he is aware of the roads and forests that lead the groups to the cars’ point).

Ghamdan was then taken with families, including children, to the Belarusian border and the Poles border guards opened the fence and returned them to Belarus. Inside Belarus, everyone was taken to a border guards’ camp, where they were beaten, robbed of their money and phones, then put at night in buses, this time heading to the borders with Lithuania with a stern threat to punish anyone who tried to retreat. 

This time, Ghamdan was a witness to one of the greatest human tragedies that had occurred to the migrants after the Belarusian border guards gave him and a group of immigrants, including a Kurdish couple with their four-year-old child, a rubber boat to cross the river to Lithuania, the child fell into very cold water and they could not save him: “If Europe or Germany is ahead of us at this moment we will not move forward.  Death has an impact”. 

With the horror of the tragedy, the Lithuanian border guards arrived and sent them back to Belarus and kept the family to bring their child’s body. This was the third attempt that ended tragically.

The fourth time, the Belarusian border guards gave them a barbed-wire cutter and ordered them to cross into Poland, where they were met with pepper spray, water, and beatings by the Polish border guards. Then he decided to return to Minsk and was severely beaten when Belarusian border guards learned about this.

“I saw families badly crying on their children on this route, they were deceived by smugglers who told them they would walk a few kilometers to reach the desired paradise where they will find stability and a happy life.”

When I contacted Ghamdan again, he told me that he is applying for asylum in Belarus, which registered his application and sent him to a refugee center in the Belarusian-Ukrainian border town of Gomel.

“Right now, returning to Yemen means killing me, but it’s faster than this slow death...  I fled Syria; the people of Syria fled it too”.

We contacted the UNHCR to comment on these violations and they said: “We are aware of reports but cannot confirm them due to the lack of firsthand information or the possibility to cross-check the information. UNHCR has a small presence in Minsk and does not have regular unrestricted access to the border areas. UNHCR receives reports that people continue to try to cross the border with the EU, particularly in Poland, and return to urban areas when they are not successful’’.

 

Smugglers’ Paradise and the Immigrants’ Hell  

Belarus allowed middle-class citizens to come to its territory for tourism with visa facilities until travel agencies in many Arab countries and capitals announced the availability of tourism travel programs to Belarus, which in some offices amounted to $3,000 per person.

Many travel agencies in many Arab capitals justify their work by providing tourist visas to their travelers in a systematic manner, saying they are not responsible for those travelers’ intentions to go for irregular migration through Belarus. 

Iraqis account for the largest proportion of migrants transiting or wishing to cross from Belarus to Europe. Dr. Karim al-Nouri, undersecretary of the Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and Displaced Persons says:

“Iraq allows its citizens to travel to all countries of the world. A citizen who has a passport is entitled to travel, but we are not responsible for an Iraqi who uses a country’s visa to take the path of illegal immigration, as the case with the Iraqis in Belarus, where there are mafias are most often overlooked by the Belarussian authorities as a pressure paper on the EUROPEAN Union.”

Iraq suspended direct flights from Baghdad to Minsk after coordinating with the European Union as a sign of good intentions and closed the honorary consulate of Belarus in Bagdad and Erbil so that Iraqis would not have access to Belarus.  Baghdad has also returned nearly 3,500 Iraqi citizens from Belarus, most of them from the Kurdistan region as Dr. al-Nouri said.

 

Tragedies on the borders

In the face of the death threat Haidar Kamal, 45 years old Iraqi, faced by powerful members of the Iraqi government, had only an open door which is via Belarus. He went straight to a tourism agency in Baghdad called Nabaa al-Joud, which provided him with a tourist invitation with his wife and two children, arranging a full tourism program for the family for $7,200, then they left for Minsk via Flydubai crossing by Dubai on (September 9, 2021).

In Minsk: “The smugglers were coming themselves to the hotel, and I could see a lot of the immigrants dealing with them.” Haidar reached out to a smuggler with Libyan nationality, as he found out, and the agreement was to take Haider and his family to the Belarusian-Polish borders, then give him points on the map (GPS) to walk about 3 kilometers inside Poland, then the smuggler’s car takes them to an apartment in Poland, and two days later another car brings them to Germany for 2,500 Euros per person.

It was not difficult for Haider and his family to cross the Belarusian-Polish border, as the Belarusian border guards guided them to places where their Polish counterparts were not present. They moved inside Poland with another family on their feet for about 3 kilometers waiting for the loading car until it was dark. Meanwhile, Haidar’s wife was exhausted and complaining of pain, so he decided to get out of the forest and stopped a civilian in a car in the hope of calling the Polish authorities to bring an ambulance to take his wife to the hospital. 

The Polish army came, but they returned Haidar and his family to the Belarusian borders in the middle of the night and did not take his wife to a hospital despite the apparent deterioration of her health. 

“I kept calling on the Polish border guards to help my wife while we were in the area between the two countries but in vain. My wife’s health deteriorated further and died hours later at dawn at the borders when I fell into yelling.” Said, Haider.

Haidar then walked back to the Belarusian border, putting the body of his wife, children, and accompanying Iraqi family in a side place, then went to the Belarusian border guards who refused to help him and to move his wife’s body, and bargained with him saying, “We will only help you when you say that the Poles beat you and killed your wife.”

The Belarusian border guards arranged to produce a film condemning the Poles in this incident. Haidar was forced to be filmed, saying on camera that polish border guards had assaulted them, causing the death of his wife:

“I was forced to do so because my children were with me in the forest with my wife’s corpse. Honestly, the Poles did not beat us”, said Haider.

Haidar returned to Belarus with his wife’s body and was filmed by Belarusian channels that promoted the story of being beaten by the poles, which caused accusations and many continuous problems for him in Iraq, he says, where the parents of his deceased wife imagined that he had not provided enough protection for her against the poles.

Haidar and his children were then transferred to a border area called “Gorodnaya” where the tragedy increased as he was kept in prison and the children were kept in custody then they began interrogating him for crossing the Belarusian border and killing his wife by Polish border guards! The interrogations continued for a week, many hours daily, and in more than one police station.

“It was a severe physical and psychological torment, at every police station or prison, asking me to take off my clothes and I was subjected to a humiliating inspection. There was no humanity. Humanity was a lie there’’.

After the interrogations were completed, the Belarusian authorities decided to deport Haider and his children to Iraq on Turkish Airlines after taking his money and phone: “I did not see any country deporting a person at his own expense, even moving between police stations to conduct interrogations with me, they were deducting it from my money, as well as the fare of the car that took me to the airport when I was deported ... “.

The case of his wife’s body remained pending because there was no Iraqi embassy in Minsk, and after 12 days of trouble arrived in Iraq, he reached out to someone there who had been authorized through the Iraqi Embassy in Russia and then shipped his wife’s body at his own expense to Iraq. 

Haidar summarizes his harsh experience by saying: “It is the politics between Belarus and the European Union that deceived and conspired us. Belarus is responsible for deceiving us 100%. It was our dream and our goal to secure the future of our children, but this is God’s destiny with us, and there is no objection to it.”

 

Abuse and Sexual harassment 

Um Zomorod, 29 years old, Iraqis carried her pain and dreams and left with her husband and baby from Baghdad to Istanbul because she is Sunni and her husband is Shiite where their marriage was met by the refusal of her husband’s family who tried to abduct her baby many times.

She heard about the route to Europe via Belarus, so she decided with her husband to go through it. The couple left Istanbul for Minsk with a visa they got from an Istanbul travel agency for $1,500 per person. 

It was not difficult to reach the borders and to enter Poland with the help of the Belarusian border guards, but their return by the Poles angered the Belarusian border guards, and one of them assaulted her husband with the back of his gun while carrying his infant: 

“I feared for my daughter and stood in front of my husband to protect him, but the soldier beat me with a tree branch he was carrying.” Said, um Zomorod.

The soldiers also smashed the baby’s belongings, which her husband was carrying in a backpack.

Beatings were not the only thing the Belarusian soldiers did. Another family of five persons was trying to cross with Um Zomord’s family, including two girls, one is 16 years old and the other is 20 years old, who was sexually harassed by a Belarusian officer on the pretext of inspection that led the girls to scream, while the father fainted because of diabetes. 

Um Zomorod could not bear the scene and rushed to release the two girls, then the officer violently pushed her and insulted her.

Every one of us in the area between the Poles and Belarus fences has been under threat of murder by the Belarusian officer.  Um Zomorod asked one of the soldiers to help them return to Minsk. He asked $1,000 for each family, which he later reduced to $500 after a long plea to the soldier. In the morning the soldier called a car and they had to walk for an hour to reach it.

"The officer said if they didn’t move from here till the morning, I would put them on the Lithuanian borders where they will be killed’’ said the Belarussian soldier to Um Zomorod.

 

Minsk… The Starting point

In a documented report, the British-run Russian opposition website Dossier indicates that the opening of the borders to migrants from the Middle East and Asia was planned by Belarusian authorities, and the Belarusian state travel agencies have played a major role in its implementation.

Ihab al Rawi, Iraqi activist and member of the Consolidated Rescue Group said to us ‘’We have received many appeals for deportation, but these people are being deported and the Belarusian authorities use force and beatings with the immigrants’’. He continued by saying, on the contrary, the Belarus authorities refuse to send the immigrants back to Minsk or to provide them with medical care. He pointed out that immigrants communicated with them and said that Belarus border guards asked them to cross to Poland or to die on the border.

Since March and April 2021, the majority of those arriving in Belarus were Iraqis, and since September 2021 Syrians have joined the passengers’ list heavily, with Syrian airline Cham Wings at the time, where this airline organized almost daily flights from Damascus to Minsk. Zayed Idris (44 years old) asylum seeker in Belgium, was on board one of these flights.

After two failed attempts to migrate by sea through Turkey in August 2021, Zayed changed his direction towards the famous Belarusian route and returned to Damascus, finding that Cham Wings airlines provide an integrated travel program to Belarus, including a visa, flight, and a 10-day hotel stay for $4,000, and the company has a delegate in Belarus embassy to arrange the visa.

Zayed and his companions first reached out to an Iraqi smuggler named Abu Rashid in Minsk and agreed with him on 2,500 Euros to deliver them to Germany.  The amount was kept in an illegal money deposit office at the Haftaro deposit office in Istanbul, which receives 100 Euros in commission. 

After arriving in Minsk, they turned directly to the borders, and the Belarusian border guards helped them cross, they had to reach the loading point set by Abu Rashid in Poland, but they were returned by the Poles and then were beaten and humiliated by Belarusian border guards, especially when they expressed their desire to return to Minsk.

The Belarusian officer addressed them sharply: “You are forbidden to return or you will be shot. The Poles beat you up, not us, you have to tell everyone that. You choose to live or die here or to go to Poland, you are free, but there is no return to Minsk.” 

The Belarusian border guards put them in a truck and went to another border point then helped them cross into Poland, then they contacted another Syrian- smuggler, Abu al-Walid, who asked them for 2,500 Euros to get them to Germany. Zayed contacted a friend who asked him to contact Haftaro’s Istanbul office, where they deposited the money to change the “Tasheek” to be in the name of the new smuggler, Abu al-Walid instead of the old smuggler.  This was done for an additional 100 euros costs.

The car that transported Zayed and his companions from the forests of Poland to Germany had Swedish plates driven by a Syrian driver of Palestinian – origin: “The driver told us that he drives 2,000 kilometers every two days. He can take a daily trip as commissioned by the smuggler, and every smuggler has cars to deal with to transport his customers.” Said, Zayed.

 

Hybrid warfare parties… Countries, Companies, and Individuals

Reports indicate that the increase in the flow of migrants was initially linked to EU sanctions against the Lukashenko regime in the aftershock of the emergency landing of Ryanair (Irish Airlines) in Minsk on May 23, 2021, due to a false report of a bomb by Minsk to arrest dissident Roman Portasevich. 

By tracking the migrants’ flights, we find that they arrived at the border with the European Union weeks before the hijacking, and travel from Middle Eastern countries accelerated steadily in the following months.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has made it clear that he has no intention of preventing anyone from crossing the border, and that EU countries will be happy with the manpower coming to them. While the Lithuanian government spoke of a “hybrid warfare” on its country and the entire European Union. The EU accused Lukashenko’s regime of using the refugees as a weapon against the European Union, and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Lukashenko’s actions as “an attack on all of us in the EU.” 

On December 2, 2021, the European Union imposed sanctions on persons and entities allegedly involved in bringing refugees to Minsk to cross into Europe.

“Belavia Belarusian Airlines”: Open Joint Stock Company “Belavia” is the State-owned national flag carrier airline. Aliaksandr Lukashenka promised that his administration would provide all possible support to Belavia after the Union decided to introduce a prohibition on the overflight of Union airspace and access to Union airports by all Belarusian air carriers. To that end, he agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin on planning the opening of new airline routes for Belavia.

Belavia has been involved in bringing migrants from the Middle East to Belarus. Migrants wishing to cross the Union’s external border have been flying to Minsk onboard flights operated by Belavia from several Middle Eastern countries, in particular Lebanon, UAE, and Turkey. To facilitate this, Belavia opened new air routes and expanded the number of flights on existing routes. Local tour operators have acted as intermediaries in selling Belavia tickets to prospective migrants, thereby helping Belavia to keep a low profile.

Belavia is therefore contributing to activities by the Lukashenka regime that facilitate the illegal crossing of the external borders of the Union.

“TSENTRKURORT”: State-owned tourism company Tsentrkurort is part of the Department of Presidential Affairs of Belarus. Tsentrkurort is reported to be one of the companies coordinating the flow of migrants that intend to cross the border between Belarus and Union Member States. Tsentrkurort helped at least 51 Iraqi citizens acquire visas for their visit to Belarus, and signed a contract for transportation services with Belarusian company Stroitur, which offers bus rentals with drivers. Buses booked by Tsentrkurort transported migrants, including children, from Minsk airport to hotels.

LLC Oskartour: Oskartur is a tour operator, which facilitated the obtainment of visas for migrants coming from Iraq and organized their subsequent travel to Belarus by flights from Bagdad to Minsk. Those Iraqi migrants were later transported to the Belarusian-Union border to illegally cross it. Thanks to Oskartur and its contacts with Iraqi airlines, Belarusian authorities, and the State-owned Tsentrkurort company, regular flights from Baghdad to Minsk were launched by the Iraqi air carrier, to bring more persons to Belarus to illegally cross the external borders of the Union. Oskartur took part in this illegal border-crossing scheme carried out by Belarusian security services and State-owned companies.

Open Joint Stock Company “HOTEL PLANETA”: Hotel Planeta is a subsidiary company of the Belarus President Property Management Directorate – a government agency that directly reports to the President. Hotel Planeta took part in the illegal border-crossing scheme carried out by Belarusian security services and State-owned companies. Migrants were accommodated in the hotel before being transported to the border between Belarus and Union Member States to illegally cross it. They paid USD 1 000 to a travel agent in Baghdad for the flight, a tourist visa, and a stay in the hotel.

Cham Wings Airlines: Cham Wings Airlines is an operator of charter flights from Syria to Belarus. The company increased the number of flights from Damascus to Minsk since the summer of 2021 to transport migrants to Belarus, who intended to illegally cross the external borders of the Union. In autumn 2021, Cham Wings also opened two new offices in Minsk to be able to organize the flights between Damascus and Minsk.

VIP Grub: VIP Grub is a passport and visa service based in Istanbul, Turkey, which organizes trips to Belarus with the explicit intention of facilitating migration to the Union. VIP Grub actively advertises migration to the Union.

The testimonies and data that we have obtained indicate that the Belarusian authorities opened the doors of organized and individual trips to Belarus and tried to flood the borders adjacent to it with migrants, as it facilitated their crossing despite the many tragedies that occurred to them, and sometimes stood as an obstacle to their abandonment of immigration.

Flight data confirm that a huge influx of migrants took place, especially between April and November 2021, and that several airlines participated in this flow – without evidence of their involvement in a Belarusian plan – through 1,317 flights to Minsk that carried about 100,000 people If we consider that each flight carried only 80 passengers intending to emigrate, while the capacity of most planes exceeds 140 passengers and some of them reach 400 passengers.

Smugglers also invested in the Belarusian route quickly and widely to accumulate huge profits, and when this path seemed to decline, other routes, including Turkey and Greece, returned to activity. Similar passport!

 

Migration with Look-alike Passports

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: "Now Belarus is getting tough.  Look, this is our work. Very good." Said, Amjad.

The smuggler showed a video of people waiting in the forest then a modern private car appears where they get into it and drive off.  This was the traditional smuggling ground route from Turkey to Greece, passing through eastern European countries through the network of smugglers deployed in these countries and then 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 said it's too much, he confirmed that it is suitable for the length of the road and its difficulties and the facilities provided by the smuggler, and this sum is distributed among several people. 

"We're six people, and I don't get this money myself.  We are a network of smugglers scattered in many countries and I am not the leader of this network, but a member of it,". Said, Amjad. When I asked him where is the commander staying, he said he is living in Greece.

Back to the video shown by the smuggler to me, praising his work, I noticed a name on "Tik Tok" called Abu al-Abd al-Iraqi. back to it, I found many videos of immigrants crossing with the smugglers' men as known "Riber” In each video, they call on migrants to pay tribute to Abu al-Abed al-Iraqi, the leader of these smugglers’ networks. 

Abu al-Abd al-Iraqi is active on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok and publishes almost daily videos of people arriving in Hungary on the way, thanking and praising Abu al-Abd al-Iraqi and reminding everyone of the money deposited office or "Tasheek” in which the amount agreed with the smuggler was deposited.

"Tasheek" is an important term in the lexicon of immigrants and smugglers, and an essential stage for every irregular immigrant who wants to reach Europe by boat, cars, trucks, or through airports by smugglers.

Smugglers are easily accessible via Tik Tok, Facebook, and Instagram, where videos of refugees crossing this route are widely published by smugglers 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

These "Tasheek" offices are scattered in Istanbul and some Arab cities and Greece.  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 in their countries of destination. It is somewhat similar to the Western Union or MoneyGram money transfer system, but it is illegal and is practiced behind the scenes, and always has dealt with the smugglers.

These offices often operate under the guise of travel agencies and tourism or service companies and do not carry any sign, banner, or addresses that refer to them. It's well-known points only for those who engage in the search for irregular migration through social networks and come into contact with migrants and smugglers.

We searched for these offices in Istanbul and found a number of them such as Fayyad's office, Milano's office, Haftaro's office, Akram Abu Ali's office, and Assaf's office, and according to the testimonies of many migrants who wish to emigrate on their social media accounts in the first week of December 2021, Assaf’s office (Syrian owned) defrauded many of them and ran away with the money they deposited in his office. 

Smugglers usually impose the name of a particular insurance office on the migrants, which shows a huge amount of fraud and the relationship between these offices and smugglers. While other offices continue their work to ensure the sustainability of this income and to invest in the large and continuous migration movement. Some of these offices have branches in European cities according to what some of the smugglers mentioned to us.

 

The convenient solution… Look alike passport

I assured Amjad that I am looking for an easier and faster way to bring my relative to Belgium that does not include risk. I was surprised then by the idea of a "Look alike 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 are widespread, due to the presence of thousands of refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and others, who are looking for a way to reach the countries of the European Union.

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 twice 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 showed a photo on his phone of a young man who appeared to be in his late 20s. I want you to send me your passport photo to send to this person in Istanbul. "I want a copy of your passport to send to this guy in Istanbul. he looks like you’’, said, Amjad.

Amjad tried to seduce me by selling my passport, saying, "No problem. The amount we're going to gain is going to be split between us,".  He sent me several messages via WhatsApp in a hurry to send him a copy of the passport, and I replied that I would send it when I return from traveling. 

I understood that what I had to do was just hand over my passport to the smuggler then after three or four days before I report the loss of my passport to the Belgian authorities. At that time everything is over, and the person who looks like me traveled with my passport, and ID and arrived in the desired European country with a reasonable risk rate.

In addition to purchasing my passport, Amjad offered me to work with him as a “broker" for 500 euros per person, where, as planned, I would contact those who want to emigrate or who would like to bring relatives to Belgium with him only.

 

Semi-regular Migration!

With everything Amjad said and what I saw and read on social media and similar passports’ offers, I was skeptical of how successful the chance of passing strict European airports with a similar passport, but I realized it was a popular way, according to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).

The Frontex report, published on 30 June 2021 confirms that Criminal networks offer facilitation by air, which is usually linked to high fees and supported by the provision of fraudulent documents. Organized crime is often involved in the production of false 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, compared to 2019 the number of individuals detected at airports with fraudulent documents on entry to the EU/SACs fell by 57% to around 1500 cases in 2020.

We contacted Frontex, they replied to us saying ‘’ Impersonation is a well-known way of misuse of genuine documents by someone else who looks like the document owner. The document in question remains genuine without any alteration. High similarity between the original and the new holder of the document in some cases may cause border checks and detection of the impostor more challenging. Frontex supports the Member States to counter this kind of tactic by organizing pieces of training on the detection of false documents for border guards and law enforcement, sharing expertise, and supporting operational activities on documents fraud’’.

We tried to look for people who entered the EU with look-alike passports, and the routes they took. We could document many cases that proved to us that a similar passport is one of the most common access routes to EU countries. Some migrants are looking for smugglers online through many accounts posted on social media platforms, which we followed in this investigation using Fake names and accounts on social media. 

 

Free Market for Travel Documents!

On the Internet and social media, we found a thriving market for European and even American, Canadian, and Arab (Syrian, Yemeni, and Palestinian passports and ID cards help in applying for asylum) and smuggling offers.

We looked at hundreds of active groups in this context on the “Instagram” and “Tik Tok” applications, and dozens of pages and accounts on Facebook, with hundreds of interactions. The passport options offered were more than we imagined and at competitive prices.

These pages, which are run by professional smugglers and others whose goal is to seize a referral opportunity, are classified within the context of organized crime and human trafficking, especially with the many tragedies that occur to migrants through the various migration routes.

We contacted the Facebook administration about the widespread accounts specialized in smuggling, selling passports, and fraud that trade in the pain of the immigrants, and its response was: “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 who they think might break our rules."

Hundreds of accounts are still active, posting smuggling offers, various travel documents, irregular migration routes, buying and selling details, prices, and thousands of people follow and interact with them.

During May and June 2022, I went undercover and 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 ask for asylum there. I got a lot of offers and a variety of options at varying prices.

A smuggler called "Hammam Bek" - who works in Istanbul - requested in a WhatsApp call with him a personal photo for me to compare with his passports.

We processed a fake image where we were keen to have Arab and Middle Eastern features and we sent it. He sent two French passports, an American and a Dutch passport. The similarity didn't fit, but the smuggler assured us that he have more options, and we just have to send the photo with shorter hair to make it easier to find.

The smuggler "Hammam Bek" - and all the smugglers we contacted - avoided talking about the source of these many passports and identities from which he chooses what suits his customers. One of the smugglers told us that they get the passports from embassies without their numbers being officially registered, and another confirmed that they buy them from gangs that steal them or from their owners, who in turn display them on social media, or through direct contact with smugglers.

In a call with the so-called "Hammam al-Rashad" smuggler (Syrian origin and active from Istanbul), confirmed that he has a wide range of genuine and fake passports, Spanish, Italian, Belgian, and German, and from the Dominican Republic, as well as asylum passports for Arab citizens in Germany, Belgium, and Sweden.

He offered an original Belgian passport for 1700 Euros, and another forged one for 1200 euros, indicating that he would put the photo that would be sent to him on the original passport, in addition to securing the identity card and changing the chip.

"Hammam Al-Rashad" also made a good offer, including the possibility of traveling to the European destination through the airport of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, "in a "guaranteed" manner, for an additional 5,000 euros.

To dispel any fears, the smuggler sent me a video clip that includes a Belgian passport and identity, in which he reviews the details and the difficulty of detecting them on scanners and the feature of identifying codes or barcodes, which are similar to those used by customs at airports, and also confirmed that people used the same passport and they reached the destination country easily.

In the video, as the smuggler checks the ID card on the scanner to confirm its quality, many ID cards appear that look European, confirming the many options he has.

We only had to send the data, photo, and signature and pay 300 euros deposit to the smuggler through an intermediary we will meet in Istanbul, to receive a video of the new passport, after which the remaining amount is paid and the passport and Belgian identity card are received in the same way.

As for "Abu Iyad" - also a Syrian smuggler working in Istanbul - he offered a complete package for travel from Istanbul to Belgium, including an original Dutch passport, identity card, and tickets for 10,500 euros.

According to his plan, the owner of the original passport (who will sell his passport) will come from Holland to Istanbul, then the original photo will be changed by laser, and the new person’s photo (the investigator) will be placed, and the entry stamp to Istanbul will help travel without problems to Amsterdam, with facilities provided in Sabiha airport, he said.

In such cases, the owner of the original passport does not leave until a similar person arrives in the destination country, tearing up the passport and seeking asylum, after which the original owner goes to the consulate of his country to request a return visa or a new passport to replace the lost one (as he will claim).

We also looked for other smugglers. Each of them made tempting offers to emigrate. A smuggler called "Abu Ali" offered an original European passport with a photo changed, and travel from Izmir to Athens and then to Belgium by air for 9,500 euros that would be secured at any of the Tasheek offices in Istanbul, Izmir, or Athens.

When we contacted a smuggler called "Abu Mustafa" - based in Athens - via WhatsApp, he asked for a photo. we treated one and sent it, and he replied by sending a similar French passport. The photo in the passport was reasonably similar to the processed photo, and the price of the passport was set at 4,500 euros.

Abu Mustafa stressed that providing a passport and travel plan would not take more than two days and that the matter was simple and "very easy", traveling with a look-alike passport.

Abu Mustafa asked me if I speak English in case they ask me at the airport to reply to them, and I replied ‘’a little bit’’. I asked him if he speaks English and he said he speaks Dutch and he used to live between Holland and Germany.

This passport dealer followed us with a lot of calls and WhatsApp messages in a hurry to complete the deal, from which we were satisfied with knowing the details.

A smuggler called "Nasir Moayad" is also active from the Greek capital of Athens. To travel to Belgium by air within a week he offered to provide a travel document for Arab asylum seekers (which Arab refugees receive in European countries) that was 60% similar to the image we will send to him, and then he would change the features of its original owner so that the similarity with the image of the supposed immigrant reach 90%, he says.

Moayad's offer also included accompanying us on the same flight until arriving in the Belgian capital, Brussels, for 5,000 euros.

For many reasons, we could not complete the migration journey with the smugglers who were willing to sell us genuine or look-alike European travel documents and other documents from different countries of the world, with facilities at the airports, but we tried in return to search for people who did that.

 

Look-alike Passports between the European Airports

The 38-year-old Syrian Siraj, (a pseudonym), could not have imagined that he would arrive effortlessly in Brussels with an Irish passport, having traveled hundreds of kilometers with others in the mountains between Turkey and Greece, guided by google maps to safely drive them to the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.

In this city, which is full of immigrants and smugglers, he had the idea of a similar passport. He reached out to a Syrian smuggler in Athens who asked him for a photo and some of his specifications such as height and weight to inform him two days later of the availability of an Irish passport with identity for 5,000 euros.

Siraj traveled directly to Athens, met the smuggler, scheduled travel time, and booked a flight ticket. The smuggler provided him with a negative PCR test in the name of the Irish person who bore his name, identity, and passport.

The young Syrian did not face any trouble at Athens airport, and he was not asked by customs or airport police to remove the corona face mask so that they could see his full face.  He was lucky that day, he says: "Ten people were arrested at Athens airport, who tried to travel with similar passports."

Siraj's flight to Belgium was passing through Milan's Malpensa airport and was completed the next morning from Linati, the city's second airport to Brussels Charleroi airport, south of the Belgian capital, and in all these airports the security authorities did not discover the similar 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," then took the passport and disappeared into the crowd.   The man was on the same flight from Milan to Brussels Charleroi on a mission to get the passport back to re-use in the entry of other migrants.

 

Two-year journey … 18 attempted crossings

Mohamed Al-Lahmid, 32 years old, Bedoon (without documents where Kuwait refuse to give them papers despite they are born there for generations) from Kuwait. from the beginning of 2019 to August 2021 when he reached his last destination, Britain, after passing through 10 European countries from Georgia to Turkey.

Mohamed had first to obtain a Kuwaiti travel document to start his journey, and after paying money to an official person- currently in prison - he was able to obtain a Kuwaiti travel document issued to the Bedoon in cases of medical treatment and study, and not to obtain a Schengen visa. It is different from the official Kuwaiti passport in color and privileges.

From the Turkish city of Izmir, he tried to cross into Greece but he was arrested, claiming to be a Palestinian to avoid deportation (Yemeni and Palestinian nationalities are not deported outside Turkey), but failed to answer detailed questions about Palestine. Turkish police estimated that he was a Syrian national and deported him along with other Syrians to Idlib city in March 2019.

Mohamed was able to return to Turkey through Syrian smugglers operating on the border for 700 euros, then reached out to another Iraqi smuggler in Izmir, who was able to secure him to cross into the Greek island of Samos for 1,200 euros, where he stayed there for about two years, and asylum request was rejected twice. 

Mohamed managed to reach Athens via a Palestinian smuggler and decided to travel via a look-alike European passport. For three and a half months, Mohamed tried to travel through Athens airport with similar passports, one Belgian, another Swedish, then through a Danish identity Card provided by a Kurdish smuggler for 7,000 euros to be paid on arrival, where he deposited the sum at Hahaftaro's office in Istanbul. 

All his attempts failed and he was arrested at Athens airport and was released the first time, then the next time he was imprisoned for four days, then the last time he signed a pledge not to try it under the penalty of imprisonment and fine.

Despite its spread and high demand for it, the similar passport method does not always go easily, as many of its holders are arrested at airports, and the European authorities sometimes dismantle some networks that work in the trade of official documents.

After the similar passport idea failed, Mohamed decided to travel by ground routes from Thessaloniki to eastern Europe after agreeing with an Iraqi smuggler, but the Greek army arrested him and deported him to Turkey: "We were sent back to zero point."

Mohamed remained in Turkey for a month and used the Kuwaiti travel document to travel to Albania and then to Serbia via smugglers. He was lucky as the Albanese authorities couldn’t differentiate between the Kuwaiti travel document and passport. In the meantime, he tried to cross into Romania, Croatia, and Hungary, but all attempts failed.

It's easy to reach smugglers in Serbia as if they were living with you. You go to refugee camps and you find smugglers and people tell you the names of smugglers and the roads they take through Serbia according to Mohamed.

“Smugglers are easily accessible via Tik Tok, Facebook, and Instagram, where videos of refugees crossing this route are widely published by smugglers to promote their activity, you will see those around your place’’ said, Mohamed.

After 18 attempts, Mohamed succeeded in crossing from Serbia to Romania via a Syrian smuggler's truck.  then stayed in the smuggler’s small apartment in Romania with 120 people for two days, then to Paris then to Calais, where thousands of dreamy migrants dream to reach Britain.

In Calais, Mohamed 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, the third attempt was successful in August 2021, when Mohamed 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 prominent part of the iceberg in the so-called Dark Web. Technological progress and intertwining in financial, security, and information systems have allowed the display and sale of everything that comes to mind on Internet sites, from hacking social media accounts, Google, and databases. , to credit cards, electronic payments (Paypal), Western Union, and malware, as well as driver's licenses and even Uber account for transportation services and more.

The (privacy affairs) website sets the price index of the “dark web” for various of these services for the year 2022, as it varies according to the type and importance of the passport or identity, the number of accounts targeted in any of the communication sites or the electronic payment account, or the value of the amount included in the credit card.French, Polish, and Maltese passports, for example, have an average price of 3,800 euros, identity cards for European Union countries are about 160 euros,  and an American driver's license is 150 euros.

To verify the status of some of the passports sent to us by smugglers and passport dealers, we chose some of them, and searched for the accounts of their owners on social media, according to the data and photos on those passports. We sent them questions about how their passports and IDs ended up in the hands of the smuggler, but we did not get a response from them until the publication of this investigation.

Most of the smugglers, whom we contacted, confirmed that the passports they sent to us are genuine and valid. They purchased it from their owners (as the smuggler Abu Mustafa mentioned and Amjad tried with me), or may have been stolen, obtained by fraud, or precisely forged based on real data and photos of their owners that were obtained somehow.

Frontex also confirms that smugglers and passport dealers often display original documents (passports and identity cards), which is difficult to detect at the open borders of the European Union, but in cases of reported loss or theft of the passport, it is automatically deleted from the records at the borders’ crossings.

We also contacted the authorities concerned with issuing passports in Belgium and France to inquire about the status of the same passports that were sent to us by smugglers. We asked them how to deal with such cases, the phenomenon of the spread of similar and original passports, and the exploitation of migrants by the travel document mafia, without receiving a response until the publication of this investigation.

There is no escape for migrants and European asylum seekers from falling into the smugglers’ trap and entering this “passport market” auction.

Delusions, dreams, or courage that are 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 as a teacher and get down, doctor." That might, in principle, 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.