The Islamic State has a “fake document industry” that includes forged passports, a French official said on Monday.
“Daesh has managed to seize passports in Iraq, Syria and Libya and to set up a true industry of fake passports,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters following a meeting in Amsterdam. Cazeneuve also proposed creating a task force to prevent migrants from using the forged documents to enter the European Union.
He said the task force should be based in Greece, which was the European entry point for at least two of the perpetrators in November’s terrorist attack in Paris. Speaking separately, Greek Deputy Interior Minister Nikos Toskas said the heavy volume of immigrants accepted by his country made the documents especially problematic.
“On the issue of fake documents, many are sold on Middle East markets and we know how difficult it is to identify them with good machines, in calm conditions, not when you have 4,000 arriving in a day,” Toskas said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The news is also problematic for the Obama administration, which has insisted that its plan to accept 70,000 refugees over the coming year will pose minimal security risk for the United States.
Homeland security officials have said otherwise. A December report by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement obtained by ABC News suggested fake passports stemming from the operation could number in the thousands, and are valued at $200 to $400 each in Syria.
A Tuesday hearing by the Senate Intelligence Committee with Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan was expected to focus in part, on the refugee issue. That hearing has been postponed until next week due to inclement weather.
