It
has become increasingly difficult to get out of the war-ravaged lands
of the Middle East where millions have been left with homeless and
hopeless futures. In Sweden it can take up to two years for someone who
has obtained a residential permit, to bring his or her family for a
so-called family reunification. This has led to a massive increase
in human trafficking. I met some victims who have entrusted their lives
and money into the hands unscrupulous gangs, organized into leagues
with branches in Sweden and Germany.
In a church in the northern part of Beirut I’m being told that a young mother has gone from Syria to Lebanon, hoping to continue on. Her husband has paid 5000 euros for a visa to Germany. The person who has received the money claims to be working in the German embassy. But it’s a lie. The money has been paid, but the visa does not exist.
In a church in the northern part of Beirut I’m being told that a young mother has gone from Syria to Lebanon, hoping to continue on. Her husband has paid 5000 euros for a visa to Germany. The person who has received the money claims to be working in the German embassy. But it’s a lie. The money has been paid, but the visa does not exist.
I
ask a volunteer at the church if he knows about this scam. He says that
everyone – aid workers and government officials – knows that refugees
are being fooled.
A
young woman from Bagdad, Terez, whispers that she knows others who have
been fooled. She asks me to accompany her to a four-storey house in the
ghetto nearby. There she tells me how she and her brother had to flee
to Lebanon when jihadists started to kidnap Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syrians
and other Christians. Their father was one of them.
Her
brother Tomas arrives. Terez prepares Arabic coffee, while Tomas tells
their story. The siblings’ story is painfully familiar – persecution,
harassment, abuse and violent deaths. Non-Muslims are facing
increasingly unbearable conditions in countries like Iraq and Syria.
Terez
is married to an American of Iraqi origin and is due to move to the US,
but she doesn’t want to leave Tomas alone. “We only have each other, I
can’t go and leave him behind”, she says.
The
coffee is served in the traditional small cups. I swallow almost all
the content in one sip. At first, they glance at me strangely, but then
then we laugh, all four of us. The atmosphere eases. I am given another
cup to feed my caffeine addiction.
Terez
brings out a folder, full of their collective desperation. The message
is “rejection”, even though they have been promised – and have paid for –
“approval”. The imposters are smart. They have falsified business cards
to convince refugees in Lebanon and Jordan that they work, for example,
at the Swedish and German consulates, and the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Tomas
shows me his mobile phone. In the Middle East, most people use the app
WhatsApp, which is used for recording and sending sound messages. Tomas
has kept the whole conversation between him and the fraudster, Basil. We
listen to the recordings. Tomas calls Basil and asks if he can help
him. Basil answers that they have to be careful, that it mustn’t be
revealed that he helps people to get visas to Australia, but he will
gladly help Tomas, since they have common acquaintances. Basil makes it
sound like he is doing Tomas a favour, and that the money will go
towards his expenses, and to other people at the embassy, whom he must
bribe.
A cruel hoax
The
months pass. Tomas pays Basil 5000 euros. Money that he and Terez have
borrowed from relatives, friends and old neighbours, Christian Iraqis,
who are scattered all over the world. We continue listening. Basil lies
and lies. One day he is going to return the money, another day it’s
impossible. But then suddenly the siblings’ father, who is hiding in
Iraq, is in need of an emergency operation. There isn’t enough money.
Tomas calls Basil in a panic, asks him to stop everything and return the
money, and if not, the father is going to die. Basil says it’s not
possible, but Tomas mustn’t give up hope, because soon he will leave the
Middle East and be able to work and send money for his father’s
operation.
Then
Basil changes his mobile number. He disappears with the money. And the
siblings’ situation is now worsened. They can’t go to the police in
Lebanon, because they are there illegally. They can’t go back to Bagdad.
And the father is very ill. Besides that, they are up over their ears
in debt.
Tomas
shows me receipts for two Western Union transactions. The money has
been sent to two persons in Germany. I google the names, investigates
social media. Are they real, or are they fake identities? Yes, they
exist, but they make themselves impossible to reach when I try to
contact them.
Politician involved
I do get in touch with Paulus Kurt, who works for Internationale Gesellschaft orientalischer Christen. He
is working with refugees and is very aware of the fact that these
criminal gangs fool them. And he has reported a German local politician
to the police, because he has fooled about 40 people in Sweden and
Germany, who have residential permits, but have tried to bring over
their families, friends and old neighbours. The league targets
Christians, Yezidis and other non-Muslim groups.
Paulus
Kurt got suspicious when he heard that a politician was helping people
to apply for visas, but at a cost. He asked to see the copies. “I could
tell at once they were false, no applications had been made, and that
nobody would get a visa that way. I called the refugees and have now
identified forty-five families who have been scammed in Sweden only”.
That
night he sends me links to German news articles and TV reports. The
politician has left his post and is undergoing a criminal investigation.
Most people have lost their money. “Some have the power and brute force
to scare the league, and therefore did get their money back, while
others are powerless”, Paulus Kurt says.
I
want to get hold of Basil, and I go to a translation agency, where I
have been told I might get in touch with him. I ask if they know anyone
who can get my relatives to Europe, preferably Sweden. I say I can pay
and that I am desperate. They ask for my number, point out that they are
not involved in anything criminal, but might know someone who can help
me. They want to do this just for goodwill.
I
log onto Facebook. Basil has three Facebook pages. Pictures of when he
is at embassy offices, and at the local UN office in Beirut. It looks
good. It’s understandable that many buy into the bluff, when you see the
pictures. I approach some of his contacts, who work with refugees in
Sweden and Germany. Everybody knows of him, and that he works with
asylum issues in the Middle East, but they don’t know exactly what he is
doing.
I
seek him via Messenger. After twenty-four hours he responds. He says
“hello” and asks what he can do for me. I write that I am a journalist
and ask if he can answer a couple of questions. He replies that “he
knows someone at Skate Varkat in Malmo”. It might be a threat. He wants
me to know that he knows people in Sweden. I persist, and ask kindly
what he works with. He doesn’t answer any more.
In
Sweden I get in touch with Sharbel, through Paulus Kurt. He’s from
Syria and was smuggled to Sweden at a cost of 10 000 euros in the summer
of 2014. In May 2016 he got his residential visa. He then found out
that his wife and two children wouldn’t be able to come for at least
another 18 months, because the queues to the Swedish consulate were
massive. “The only Swedish embassy they could go to was the one in
Jordan, but the borders are closed, and open very erratically. The roads
are closed”, says Sharbel, when he explains why he paid for false
visas.
He
got in touch with the German politician’s network, and calls his
relatives and friends. He had found a new way to get into Europe. “My
brother-in-law was killed in a suicide bombing and left his wife and
daughter behind. We thought we must take them to safety in Europe. My
in-laws also wanted to come, as well as my sister, brother and their
families”.
Sharbel
paid a total of 25000 euros for the family’s visas to Germany. It was a
hoax. Three people, Sharbel’s wife and two daughters, managed finally
to get to Sweden. The others are still in Syria.
Terez, Tomas, Basil and Sharbel are fictitious names.
*Susan Korah from Canada and Ann Kristin Sandlund from Sweden contributed to this report
**This report was first published in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet