“In our view they [authentic refugees] are people coming to seek safety in Europe and not to ruin the safety of Europe,” Fleming said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
Fleming noted that, given an estimated 30,000 mercenaries fighting for the Islamic State (ISIL) jihadist group in Syria, the prospect of potential extremists blending in with hundreds of thousands migrants cannot be ruled out.
“That is what asylum processes are there for,” Fleming pointed out, adding that terrorists “tend to have means” and “don’t tend to risk their lives on boats crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe.”
A Syrian passport recovered near the body of one of the November 13 Paris suicide bombers reignited EU- and US-wide debates over the safety of their respective resettlement plans.
The passport is strongly suspected of being forged, after reports that both Greek and Serbian bordered officials had registered the same person, using the same passport but with a different photograph, as an asylum seeker.
