Somalis aided by human traffickers are using fake passports to board the Mogadishu-to-Istanbul flight as a way to flee to Europe, a Somali official and Turkish Airlines said.
Turkish Airline last year became the first international airline to fly direct to Mogadishu after two decades of conflict isolated the East African nation.
Somalia’s government said that Somali asylum seekers are using fake passports that belong to Somali-Europeans smuggling networks to get to Europe by flying out of the country on Turkish Airlines.
“After the city got some stability, human traffickers returned with scams,” said Gen. Abdullahi Gafow Mohamud, Somalia’s immigration and naturalization department chief.
“The problem increased when Turkish Airlines started operating here. Somalis in Europe are increasingly using fake passports to smuggle people illegally into Europe.”
Mohamud said Somali officials caught three people using fake passports last week. He accused Somalis in Europe of being part of the scam. Residents in Somalia pay thousands of dollars for the use of the false passports.
“They look for people with similar features, so that they give their passports to them to assist the person to get to Europe unnoticed. We can’t ignore it anymore,” he said.
Mohamud showed reporters bundles of fake passports he said were used by human traffickers.
Turkish Airlines confirmed that such scams are happening. Merve Oruc, a spokesman for the airline, said in an email that the airline is experiencing “some problems” with fake passports.
AP
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