Europe Has a List of Thousands of 'Missing Syrian and Iraqi Passports'

European countries have compiled a list of thousands of missing and blank Syrian and Iraqi passports that can be filled with false information and used for travel to Europe and other countries. An European diplomat stated on Saturday, December 21, to Reuters that this list includes serial numbers of passports without specifications that were kept in various parts of Iraq and Syria that have been occupied by the Islamic State group. According to this diplomat, there are five thousand missing Syrian passports and ten thousand Iraqi passports on this list. Various EU countries have faced a wave of hundreds of thousands of refugees, primarily Syrian, Iraqi, and other nationalities, entering their territories in recent months, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming months. In the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, for which the Islamic State or ISIS claimed responsibility, Syrian passports were found from some of the deceased attackers, and at the same time, reports emerged about the possibility of them being fake. Previously, U.S. government agencies had warned that the Islamic State or ISIS could issue fake Syrian passports. CNN reported on December 20 that ISIS has gained access to the passport printing devices of the Syrian government and also to blank passports. As a result, some of the passports used to exit Syria may be fake.