VIENNA — Moving among the tens of thousands of Syrian war refugees passing through the train stations of Europe are many who are neither Syrian nor refugees, but hoping to blend into the mass migration and find a back door to the West.
There are well-dressed Iranians speaking Farsi who insist they are members of the persecuted Yazidis of Iraq. There are Indians who don’t speak Arabic but say they are from Damascus. There are Pakistanis, Albanians, Egyptians, Kosovars, Somalis and Tunisians from countries with plenty of poverty and violence, but no war.
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Another group of men, standing in line for free food, spoke English among themselves but with an Indian accent.
One said his name was “Hassan.”
“We grew up in Syria; our fathers worked there for many years,” Hassan said.
He had worked in Syria, in a bank, in Damascus, he said.
When a reporter spoke to them in Arabic, the men smiled and said, “No Arabic, only English.” Asked where they lived in Damascus, they couldn’t really say.
They excused themselves and wandered away.
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At Vienna Westbahnhof railway station, a tight clutch of men lined up at the ticket windows. Days of rough travel lay behind them. All had one aim: Germany.
When asked by a reporter where they were from, the men answered, “We are from Syria.”
When a reporter switched to the North African dialect, the men laughed nervously. “We are Algerians,” they admitted.
Hamza, 27, is from Algiers. “I am illegal, not refugee,” he said. “In my country, the only thing you can do there is either drugs or crimes. So I was in prison several times, for drugs, also for trying to kill another guy.”
Did Hamza feel guilty? Not at all.
“It’s really easy now to travel with these refugees. We received food and shelter, and a nice welcoming from people so far.”
