Syrian Consulate in Istanbul lead example for corruption, bribery: activists

  (Reporting by Faris al-Rifai; Translation by Yusra Ahmed)

Critics rise by Syrian activists over the increase of corruption and bribery among the employees of Syrian regime's consulate in Istanbul.

In theory, the consulate does the official documents for birth, marriage, death, power of attorney, passports’ renewal and extending besides verification of certificates and official papers issued in Syria.

However, behind the doors, it works to harden the life of Syrians in Turkey, spy on them and send reports to intelligence branches in Syria about them.

Abo Mohammed, a refugee in Turkey reported to Zaman al-Wasl that he saw in his own eyes a report against a journalist called “Zakaria Mahmood”, was sent from the Consulate to intelligence in Syria.

Abo Mohammed said that he suffered a lot to have his official papers verified, and mentioned that the employees of the Consulate intentionally leave the telephone in “busy” mode to force customers to pay extra money and bribe some agents or mediation offices to facilitate their work in needs from the consulate. 

The Syrian refugee added that a mediation office called “Nawras” claims to help people in getting their documents issued in the Syrian Consulate besides booking appointments, it charges more than 5 folds the official fees. 

Abu Mohammed reported that two employees of the Consulate called Morhaf and Yasser, beside a Turkish man called Atilla, all of them mediate all the bribery and paying money in Nawras office for getting the official papers done for Syrian people in Turkey. 

“Moreover, the Consulate’s employees give their private phone numbers to customers to contact them in case they want to follow up their papers, because the official phones are intentionally kept busy. Even sometimes Syrians tend to sleep at the Consulate door to book free of charge appointments, which are kept to the Consul’s relatives, otherwise they would need to bribe much money to get ones”, Abo Mohammed said. 

In the end, Abo Mohammed talked about his experience in registering his new-born baby to get a birth certificate, as he needed to pay $120 and TRY400 as bribery. “Employees tend to delay registering babies to exceed the deadline of 3 months of age, to force parents to pay the fine.”