British intelligence officials think Islamic State militants are exploiting the migrant crisis to smuggle jihadis in to the United Kingdom.
This concern has arrived ahead of the European Union referendum June 23 when the U.K. will vote on whether to remain in the E.U. or not.
The smuggling operation depends on using legitimate-looking passport documents from Syrian or Iraq. It’s virtually impossible to distinguish between fake and legitimate identification because ISIS has captured passport manufacturing machines and set up an industry around the documents, charging anywhere between $200 and $400 for a passport, The Telegraph reports.
Genuine refugees, migrants masquerading as refugees and terrorists all have these passports, sparking fears among European Union interior ministers and intelligence officials that there’s simply no way to distinguish among the different groups and block militants from carrying out attacks. But these attacks may not occur right away. British intelligence officials believe ISIS militants sent to Europe by commanders back in Syria and Iraq are busy establishing sleeper cells. A total of 1,400 Brits have tried to travel to Syria. Of that total, 800 successfully made the trip while 600 were stopped. Approximately 400 militants out of the 800 have returned to the U.K.
One senior British intelligence official said the passport operation totally renders null any intelligence gained on militants in Syria because these militants are issued completely new identities before heading to Europe.
“Jihadists travel to Raqqa to meet up with Isil commanders, where they receive training and new passports,” the official told The Telegraph. “They then make their way back to Europe posing as migrants with new identities, making it virtually impossible for security officials to detect potential terrorists among those fleeing persecution.”
According to European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, about 60 percent of all migrants are not refugees, meaning they should be deported post-haste.
“It’s about 60 per cent of all asylum seekers,” he said, according to The Telegraph. “These are people that you can assume have no reason to apply for refugee status.”
That no stricter measures have been taken against the fake refugees is essentially indicative of the E.U.’s “ritual suicide,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Fico said Tuesday.
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