Fake asylum seekers are taking advantage of others’ circumstances to submit claims and fabricate stories for asylum and citizenship and to secure a higher standard of living.
One such incident was revealed inside a French court recently. An elegant French woman called a family seeking asylum, and returned to her office dealing with refugee affairs, followed by a family who she claimed was "gasping for a breath."
The French employee, with usual seriousness asked the family "Did you live difficult days in Syria"? The father peeked at his wife then answered: “We belong to a small minority and we fled from the horror of the battles there, where Christian children are killed and the sanctity of their homes is violated."
The family presented itself as Christians from Aleppo, the city which faces death daily. Yet investigations about the family revealed the family is in fact Iraqi Christians who bought Syrian IDs for a large amount of money in “Al Qaaem” Iraqi camp, from a Syrian family from Deir El-Zor.
According to the French employee, the Iraqi family entered the French territories illegally to seek asylum on behalf of the Syrian family, which has been done before by another Iraqi family.
Similar fraudulent activity was reported in Germany, where a Lebanese Shiite family applied for an asylum using Syrian identification.
This kind of manipulation has forced the French authorities to reconsider their asylum procedures relating to Syrians fleeing death, including applying severe border control. Their sympathies have started to be shaken, especially after an Armenian family sought asylum claiming to be from Syria escaping Islamists persecution.
The surprise comes from pro-regime supporters who are racing to get an asylum, turning their backs on the Syrian people, and selling out their parents and relatives who are fighting with Assad’s regime to enjoy the luxurious life in France.
At first it might not seem ironic, but when large classes of Assad supporters apply for asylum in France, it presents a marked contradiction to their previous position towards France.
Tayif , an Alawite woman who came from Dubai in an attempt to get asylum in France, forgot how she spoke bitterly about the shameful position of the French government towards events in Syria when she knocked on the door of the French Court to present herself as a persecuted minority who should be protected by the Geneva convention.
Tayif no longer cares to recall the evenings she spent acting as a pro-regime shabiha member, nor the taste of the sweets she ate with her friends when Eastern Gouta was bombed with chemicals. She described the humanitarian crime as a sweeping victory against black terrorism.
Another Assad supporte from Jableh, who for a long time has been cheering for Assad, also applied for asylum in France, despite the fact his family members had served in the National Defense Forces and participated alongside the regime forces in their operations.
The man, who refuses to return home and prefers to stay in France away from the bloody scenes in Syria, where there is "no safety for minorities". His claims contradict all he has said in the past about Assad being the "protector of minorities", as if he is suffering from short- term memory that has erased everything before.
The 42-year-old still hangs the regime flag in his room and when his son asks him: “When are we going back to Syria?” he doesn’t reply, instead venting his anger toward the anti-regime’s demonstrators.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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