2 Syrian refugee families face deportation

MANILA, Philippines - Two Syrian families, who used forged passports in an attempt to reach Spain and seek asylum there, are trapped at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and may be sent back to their war-torn country.

Sources told The STAR yesterday that the two families – each a woman and two children, accompanied by a male “protector” since their husbands were left in Syria – arrived one hour apart from China at past midnight on Nov. 1.

The two families used different airlines, with one family landing at NAIA Terminal 1 and the other at NAIA Terminal 3.

While immigration officials refused to identify the refugees, insiders said they are reportedly members of prominent families in Syria. The families are staying at the airport terminals’ dayrooms, which cost P800 per day.

“More and more families are getting out of Syria to seek asylum in the European community because of the civil war and because members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria are beheading non-Muslims,” sources said.

The sources said the two families traveled from Syria to Turkey then to Kuala Lumpur for their transit flight to the Philippines, then proceeded to China, where they were supposed to take a connecting flight to Spain.

The Syrian woman whose family arrived at the NAIA’s Terminal 1 said she was a teacher and they traveled to Kuala Lumpur using Syrian passports.

It was at Kuala Lumpur where they received Greek passports, since Greek citizens do not need visas for China and Spain, she said. Both families said they each paid $8,000 for the passports.

However, immigration officers in China refused them entry because their Greek passports were found to have been “forged and altered.” Sources said the families were sent back to their point of origin, the Philippines.

According to insiders, airline personnel are communicating with the Syrian consulate to verify if the two families are indeed Syrian citizens. If they are, the consulate will issue travel documents for the families to return to Syria, they said.