BAGHDAD, Iraq — Istanbul is considered a main destination for Arab migrants who want to reach Europe by illegal immigration across the Mediterranean Sea. According to a survey conducted Dec. 22 by the International Organization for Migration, most of the 1 million people who arrived in Europe in 2015 came across the Mediterranean. Syrians constituted 50% of those, while Iraqis made up 7% (about 70,000 people).

Haider Iraqi, a pseudonym, was on the hunt for a Syrian passport to assume Syrian nationality on the advice of a friend living in Austria.

After two weeks of intense research with his friends who live in Turkey, Iraqi met a Syrian national who sells Syrian documents in Istanbul. The man helped him illegally buy a Syrian passport in exchange for $1,250. Iraqi is not alone. The Syrian broker told Iraqi that seven Iraqi families and a number of young Iraqi men had already bought Syrian passports from him.

In a telephone interview with Al-Monitor, Iraqi said, “I sought to obtain a Syrian passport after I heard news on social media and on the street in Iraq that Syrian nationals have greater opportunities to find asylum in light of the sympathy shown to them by the European Union. A friend encouraged me to do so, given that dozens of young Iraqi asylum seekers were admitted this way.”