ISIL members buy passports of Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to leave Syria. OCCRP writes, citing an investigation by The Guardian.
According to journalists, a booming online fake passport industry is enabling people associated with the Islamic State to leave Syria and enter the UK, the EU, Canada and the U.S. The cheapest passports cost about $5,000, while the most expensive ones cost $15,000.
The Guardian notes that the holder of a fake passport gets almost a 100 percent guarantee that he or she will be able to cross the border between Syria and Turkey. The cheapest documents, with which one can get into the Europe, are passports of Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, which have Schengen visas.
The media outlet tells about one of the passport supply networks in operation; it is headed by an Uzbek who lives in Turkey and has ties to extremists. He uses Telegram to communicate with clients, and has created a channel there, called Istanbul Global Consulting.
Journalists have learned of at least ten cases when people illegally crossing the Syrian border into Turkey used passports purchased from him to then fly out of Istanbul airport. Sellers claims that EU countries are the most popular destination, but in at least two cases, buyers of Russian passports were able to use them to travel to Mexico and from there illegally cross the border into the United States.
Niger, Mauritania, Ukraine and Afghanistan are also among the popular destinations.
It is usually difficult for low-ranking ISIL fighters to buy even one passport, but high-ranking members of the group who plan to leave it and leave Syria buy several passports from different countries and change them on each new flight.
A Russian citizen who fought on the side of the Islamic State until 2015 told reporters that he entered Ukraine with a purchased Russian passport. There, his document was confiscated for a week for inspection, but was later returned, saying that everything was in order with it.
