TAZ: ‘Gray passports’ scandal in Turkey

Well-known and lesser-known aspects of the refugee issue are attracting the interest of the German-language press. TAZ sees a scandal with the “gray passports” in Turkey.

Her report stands out ΤAgeszeitung (TΑΖ) in the “gray passports” of Turkey, issued to state officials, but may be used by other “interested parties”. According to the Berlin newspaper, German police located a Turk in Hanover, who in 2020 “had invited 53 people from Turkey to an alleged conference on environmental issues, claiming that he would take care of their accommodation and travel schedule. with the prosecutor this was a lie, there was no schedule, no booking, nothing.In fact 46 people entered the country by bus, but most did not even reach Hanover. (…) Within two days the group disbanded. “Only two of the participants returned to Turkey as planned, another five appeared to seek asylum in various German cities. The rest have disappeared, their whereabouts remain unknown to this day. And that was exactly the plan of the accused,” the prosecution believes.

The accused himself claims, through his lawyers, that he inadvertently fell victim to a wider, dark circuit. The Tageszeitung speculates that he may have been unknowingly involved in an illegal gray passport circuit. “These are service passports issued to Turkish civil servants and other officials for official purposes, for example to attend international meetings, conferences or seminars, without the usual visa procedure. However, it is speculated that many municipalities in Turkey have issued such passports to other people, often to young people from economically weaker regions of southeastern Turkey, who reportedly paid 6,000-8,000 euros for a visa-free travel. the Turkish program of Deutsche Welle, citing an MP from the opposition CHP “.

Hundreds of Afghans in …Switzerland

The Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) notes that in recent months more and more migrants from Afghanistan are arriving – unknown how – at the Swiss border. In particular, he states: “While in February only five undocumented persons were identified trying to enter Switzerland via Austria, in August the number reached 428. In July, before the Taliban seized power, it was According to SRF, the federal government, in response to a question from the People’s Party (SVP), spoke of a ‘significant’ increase in the arrivals of Afghan nationals in areas. bordering Austria “.

Problems begin after asylum

As for Greece, the problems of refugees do not end with the provision of asylum, as the Southgerman newspaper “Anyone receiving political asylum in Greece will soon have to take care of himself. Thousands of people are trying to come to Germany to escape starvation and homelessness,” the Munich newspaper notes. As an example, he cites the story of Mohammad Nassim Omari from Afghanistan, who was recognized as a political refugee in Greece on June 10. “For the next month, they gave him 420 euros for food and everything else a family with four children needs,” the newspaper’s envoy writes. “Nothing else after that. He should leave the apartment soon, say the people of the organization that manages it on behalf of the state. His wife is lying across from him, at the bottom of a bunk bed and holding their youngest daughter,” “I told them: Where should we go with the child? And they answered me: ‘Your problem, not ours. You wanted to come here'”.

The Munich newspaper notes that, in an effort to secure a better future, many of the refugees receiving political asylum in Greece then attempt to settle in Germany. What does the Greek side say about all this? Among other things, we read: “Answering a relevant question of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Minister of Immigration of Greece, Notis Mitarakis, says that it is not surprising that people who come to the EU prefer to settle in countries that offer a better social policy and more job opportunities. He points out that ten years ago, under the austerity program and under pressure from other Member States, Greece was forced to drastically cut social spending: ‘Since then there has been no social housing program, for example. the refugees, but also the natives’ “.

Giannis Papadimitriou

SOURCE: Deutsche Welle