Terrorists Disguised as Refugees

Since the problems in Syria all of the refugees are trying to take shelter and get help in any other place of the world except their country. But the world is becoming concerned by the fact that these people who are flooding their homes are actually terrorists disguised as refugees.

This has also become one of the main concerns of the U.S. Government, especially after two Iraqi refugees in Kentucky planned to send rifles, missiles and money back home to an al-Qaida team that was planning an insurgency against U.S. troops. They were caught, however, and are now in prison, but their case rose the question of how safe would be to welcome refugees into our country, since there is this great risk of them being terrorists.

These two Iraqi men had an existing criminal record, so to speak, being previously involved in their country in insurgent attacks. They arrived in Kentucky in 2009 as part of a U.S. program that helped Iraqi refugees. Their plan to help their fellow al-Qaida operatives came to light when an FBI informant managed to infiltrate in their team and they were arrested in 2011. Fortunately, their plan failed to complete, the weapons, ammunition and money never reached Iraq so there was no attack caused by them.

However, most of the people who are opposing the idea of allowing Syrians to come into the U.S. are using the case of these Iraqis to support their cause. For example, Senator Rand Paul pointed to the case in his attempt to stop President Obama to bring another 10,000 refugees to the U.S. as there are many concerns among both citizens and politicians that the government might not be able to vet the refugees.

On the other hand, since the two Iraqis’ case raised so many questions and uncertainties about the system being vulnerable, Homeland Security has been making improvements to the screening system and this will show in screening the Syrian refugees.

The people who will, from now on, enter the U.S. as refugees will have to pass through the screening process which includes in-person interviews, background checks in the U.S. security agencies’ databases and even biometric screening. It is obviously an extensive process that will last between 18 months and two years and it can even be longer depending on the country they come from, especially if that said country is one affected by war.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, from approximately 800,000 refugees who were cleared to come and live in the U.S. only these two Iraqi men and another one from Uzbekistan were arrested for planning criminal acts. Therefore, we might see the bright side of the affair and hope that these will remain the only violent attempts of refugees.

In the end, who is to say if terrorists come disguised as refugees or not? Even with the extensive and complex screening system developed by the national security agencies, anything is possible and we should all keep our eyes open for any things that could seem amiss.

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