WORLD_ SYRIA_ Rich refugees pay thousands to flee war-torn Syria in luxury

Rich refugees pay thousands to flee war-torn Syria in luxury

Tens of thousands of wealthy Syrians are illegally immigrating to Europe on planes and luxury cruise liners, Ruth Sherlock reports

By Ruth Sherlock, and Carol Malouf in Beirut
8:28PM GMT 14 Nov 2013


Amid the jewellery stores and art galleries of a bijou district of Beirut, the travel agent’s office was bustling with customers. Elegantly dressed women wearing Gucci glasses and with manicured nails flicked through glossy brochures advertising Mediterranean cruises and package holidays as they waited their turn.

At his desk the agent worked through customers’ requests: passports could be bought with a bribe; so could many European visas. The journeys could be long, but the travel was safe and tailored for the client’s “maximum comfort”, he assured them.

As thousands of Syrian refugees risk their lives, flinging themselves on overcrowded rubber dinghies, or hiding in livestock transporters to reach Europe, Syria’s rich are smuggled to the continent on planes and luxury cruise liners.

An undercover investigation by The Daily Telegraph has exposed an elite smuggling network which extends from Lebanon and Turkey to top European destinations, including Paris, Stockholm and London. It may cost tens of thousands of pounds, but for those who can afford it, illegal immigration is relatively easy – and it is an option that several thousand Syrians, fleeing the country’s civil war, are already taking.

The “travel agent” in Beirut laid out the routes when The Daily Telegraph posed as a potential client. Over the past few years, as the war in Syria destroyed the country, the agent has devised a series of options to send his clients abroad.


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For a client without any travel documents, the smuggler can get a passport issued in Syria for a bribe of just a few hundred dollars. Then, if they opted for the most popular route, they would journey by plane from Beirut to Istanbul, where Syrians do not require an entry visa. From there, a contact arranges for the clients to be smuggled into Bulgaria.

Asylum experts regard Bulgaria as a gateway to Europe in recent months. In September alone, 2,377 migrants were detained at the border, yet smugglers say security is relatively lax.

“There is a Lebanese guy there. He is a good guy, he has taken people before and they have arrived safely,” he said, adding that they had contacts within the immigration authorities who turn a blind eye.

From Bulgaria, he said, they could offer routes to Austria, Italy and even to Sweden – a favoured destination as the country is now giving asylum, and in some cases residency, to Syrians who make it to its shores. He claimed he had employees in the countries en route to these destinations, who would bribe border officials to let the client pass without the right documents, or who would sneak the clients around the border posts.

The whole journey was done by “coach” he said. The journey from Beirut to Bulgaria alone costs around £6,200 per person; from there, rates vary depending on the destination. In all cases, clients would not be hiding in the back of trucks or vans, he said. The journey might be long, but “comfortable”.

The smuggler claimed he had agents in a number of European embassies, who could facilitate visas for a “fee”.

Another common route begins with a boat trip from Turkey to Greece. A Syrian Christian mother, going by the pseudonym of Hanna, talked about her nephew who escaped on a cruise ship. “He was a soldier in the Syrian army. All the men in his military unit were killed in the fighting and we realised we had to get him out,” she said. “When he reached Turkey, the smugglers gave him three options to cross to Greece: doing the trip in a rubber dinghy cost £1,700 and a rowing boat £2,500. Or, for £3,400 he could be smuggled on to a tourist’s boat.

“We were worried about his safety. Another friend of mine tried to go by rowing boat a month before, but they overloaded the boat and it capsized. She and her daughter almost drowned.

“I know 110 Syrian people, friends and family, who have been smuggled out in the last few months.” Once in Greece, the refugees meet smugglers who provide them with documents for onward travel.

“Abu Ibrahim is an Iraqi smuggler here who is particularly famous,” said Salem, a former rebel fighter who spoke by Skype from Greece, where he was waiting to travel to Sweden.

“He has more than 5,000 stolen or fake passports. People come to him and he gives them the passport where the picture has a likeness. If you can’t find a passport, they pay off employees on a yacht or cruise ship and you go to Sweden that way. That costs £3,800.” Ahmed, a Syrian from Homs, is visiting friends in their new home, a log cabin in the Swiss Alps. He said: “It took them six months to reach here and we paid almost €40,000 (£33,000). In Greece they had to wait months for the smuggler to find a match.

“Eventually the smuggler got hold of the passports for a family with two boys and one girl. My friend has two girls and a boy, so, for the airport, they disguised the youngest child as a boy. It’s illegal, but what other choice do they have?

“Syria is not a place to bring up their children now.”



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