Ahmed al-Halabi, a Syria refugee in Germany, his holiday in Greece has turned into nightmare after arresting him by Greek police and seizing all his documents and passport and deporting him to Turkey.
A similar story happened to dozens of Syrian refugees as their dreams had been destroyed, because the Greek authority suspected that they had come to Greece to sell or “rent” their document to others to help them in moving in Europe.
Ahmed was granted residency in Germany on March 3, 2016, and found a job in a farm. When he had a holiday for 3 months, he decided to go to Greece to visit his friends. Hwver when he arrived and while he was getting out of the train station, the Greek police arrested him and seized his documents and passport ad residency, even his driving license and hand bag, then after detaining him for while in a bad room, he was deported to the city of Adrana in Turkey.
Ahmed told Zaman al-Wasl that when he wanted to make an appointment with the German consulate in Istanbul, he needed to wait for 10 days at least. However, after attending his appointment in the consulate and told them what happened to him, he was told that his matter would need 6 weeks to be solved, but even after 2 months he discovered that his visa was not ready, and was told he would be able to travel within 2 weeks, however even after two weeks, he discovered that his application was still under process.
Ahmed explained that he had a reunion application in Germany for his family, and if he was not able to return back to the country, he would not be able to go ahead with the application.
Lawyer Firas Haj Yahya who is concerned about Syrian refuges affairs explained that many refugees were victims of the procedures taken by the Greek authority to tackle the illegal migration via Greece to Europe using passports or ID cards bought from other refugees and called “the Similar” passport.
Al-Haj confirmed that most lawsuits of “the similar Passport” are dealt with as a migration breach, as the intention of the people is travelling, not committing crime, and the punishment mostly range between 3 and 6 months suspended sentence, even sometimes the judge grants acquittal if he was sure that he similar passport’s user does not intend to do the violation again.
Mohamed Kadim Hindawi, responsible for the refugees’ file in Europe in the Arabic Organisation for Human rights explained that what happened tto Ahmed was nothing more than anticipation and suggestion about what might happen, and the Greek authority tends to warn Syrians and other refugees from doing any act like that to help any their friends or relatives.
Hindawi detailed that Greek authority usually deport who use a “similar passport” without detaining or suing him, but who gives his passport to others to use, would be deprived of residency and nationality in the refuge country and dealt with as if he threatens the national security.
Hindawi added that since 2014 the situation in Greece has become difficult for refugees, especially after the terrorist attacks on Germany, Sweden and France, and the agreement between Turkey and Europe in March 2026 which indicated returning refugees who reached to it via Turkey. Hindawi found that the situation in Greece has become unsafe for refugees and matter is even getting worse and advised Syrians not to come to Greece these days, as there are more than 60,000 refugees sin Greece and cannot move to any other European country
