[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ccording to a report Thursday November 19 by the Spanish news agency, EFE, claiming that an alleged terrorist implicated in the November 13 attacks in Paris, had departed from Bogotá to France in July this year, bribing Colombian immigration officials at passport control fueled an official response from the Foreign Ministry.
According to the Colombian Cancillería statement, only the French authorities can confirm or deny the allegation that this Syrian national, identified as Al Sakhadi Seham, made a stopover in the Colombian capital, arriving from Quito, Ecuador, where she had spent six months.
According to EFE, Al Sakhadi had presented a stolen Israeli passport under the name of Ashira Kreinger and bribed officials to let her out of the country.
“The Attorney General’s Office has no information regarding the transit of persons linked to the attacks in France,” stated the Ministry, Friday, yet it confirmed that the Colombian Government did alert French authorities in July regarding a woman heading to Stockholm, via Paris, and presenting a stolen Israeli passport. Seven officials of the state’s immigration entity, Migración Colombia, are being investigated for misconduct.
In the aftermath of the deadly attacks in Paris which claimed the lives of 130, EU Ministers gathering in Brussels are holding an emergency meeting to tighten border controls in the Schengen travel-free area of 26 countries.
An EU-wide border clampdown goes into effect immediately and all EU citizens entering or leaving the free-travel zone will be subjected to “systematic” screening of all biometric information against pan-European security databases. Currently all EU nationals are subject to “minimum” levels of identification procedures when traveling within Europe.
As Colombians welcomed the announcement last month of the lifting of the Schengen visa December 3, this prospect could be evaporating fast. And much to the dismay of Colombians who have waited more than a decade to have the same rights of entry to the EU as other Americans.
A senior security advisor, who asked to remain anonymous, told The City Paper that the EU Ministers meeting in Brussels could indefinitely postpone the Colombian and Peruvian Schengen decision, meaning nationals from these two South American countries, would have to continue to apply for travel visas in the immediate future.
And if it is confirmed that the suspicious traveler did participate in the Paris massacre, having paid her way out of Colombia, then this could complicate matters even further with the ratification of the Schengen exemption. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is expected in Brussels December 3 to sign this historic accord.
