
A Syrian migrant was smuggled into Britain on a Ryanair flight using a bogus passport supplied by a group of political extremists, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

In an astonishing security lapse, Bashar Habib, 18, walked unchallenged through a series of checks at Athens airport before claiming asylum on arrival at Stansted.

He said he had been given the passport less than 24 hours earlier by No Borders, whose members include British anarchists accused of stirring trouble among migrants in refugee camps across Europe.

Breach: In an astonishing security lapse, Bashar Habib, 18, walked unchallenged through a series of checks at Athens airport before claiming asylum on arrival at Stansted

Bashar said he bought a one-way ticket in cash from the Ryanair desk at the Greek airport and was carrying only hand luggage – but this did not arouse suspicion.

‘I’m a genuine person and want to be a doctor to help people in Syria – but I could have been a jihadi or a criminal,’ Bashar told The Mail on Sunday. ‘It’s just luck that I had good intentions.’

He boarded the plane at Athens International Airport unchallenged, despite differing markedly in appearance from the owner of the passport, Austrian Marius Brem, who has longer hair, different coloured eyes and is seven years older.

On board Flight FR1016 he celebrated by taking selfies and was on UK soil less than four hours later.

Home Office documents seen by this newspaper show that he was questioned on arrival and his nationality established by his Syrian identity card.

Police checks yielded ‘no issues’. By 8.27pm he was free to go and was taken to a hostel in South London by pre-paid taxi.

Bashar’s case has astounded politicians and security experts.

Chris Phillips, former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said: ‘He could have been anyone. It raises the question: how many more people are coming in by this route?’

Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke described the case as ‘extremely concerning’ and said the Home Office should now consider ‘proscribing No Borders because it is undermining national security’.

Our revelations come as Theresa May is due to visit to the United Nations this week, where she will lead calls for tighter airport security around the world amid concerns that terrorists linked to Islamic State are exploiting lax procedures.

A Home Affairs Select Committee has also called for security to be stepped up at smaller ports amid fears that they are being used by criminal gangs to bring in migrants.

Rob Whiteman, the former head of the UK Border Agency, estimated last month that up to one million illegal immigrants may be living in Britain, while figures published last week also show rising numbers of Britons are smuggling migrants into Europe. Europol said 136 UK suspects had been identified in 2016 so far, up 32 per cent on the 103 reported in the whole of 2015.

Helping hand: He said he had been given the passport less than 24 hours earlier by No Borders, whose members include British anarchists

Bashar said he bought a one-way ticket (pictured) in cash from the Ryanair desk at the Greek airport and was carrying only hand luggage – but this did not arouse suspicion

Bashar, who is now living in a hostel in the north of England, flew to Britain on August 8 – the day after he was introduced to No Borders, an anti-capitalist, pro-free movement network, by a Syrian interpreter at a refugee camp near the Greek port city of Thessaloniki.

Bashar had been there for more than three months, having fled his home in Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria, which has been under attack from Islamic State for two years.

The home he shared with his four brothers was destroyed and Bashar claims he was forced to witness the beheading of his best friend. ‘They executed him because he was smoking,’ he said.

How many more people are getting in this way?

He said he and his brothers bribed a military helicopter pilot to fly them out, before embarking on a perilous journey to Greece via Turkey. They were placed in a camp near Idomeni, close to the Macedonian border, for three months before being moved to Thessaloniki.

After listening to Bashar’s harrowing story, a female activist burst into tears and, he said, ‘the group then took pity on me’.

Later that day he was invited to a meeting at the No Borders HQ in Thessaloniki by the interpreter who told him the group wanted to help.

Bashar said: ‘He said, “You don’t need to know my name, just call me a friend.” Then he said, “Don’t tell anyone about this, it is a secret”.’

He boarded the plane at Athens International Airport unchallenged, despite differing markedly in appearance from the owner of the passport (stock image)

Bashar said the No Borders interpreter handed him the passport belonging to Brem, a 24-year-old Austrian, who graduated from the University of the West of England in Bristol in 2014, enough money to cover the bus fare to Athens and the one-way plane ticket to London.

‘He told me that I was Marius now and to memorise the details because on the journey people might ask me them and I needed to know them without checking the passport so as not to look suspicious,’ he said.

Bashar said the interpreter, who was in his 20s, did not say how he acquired the passport. There is nothing to suggest Brem – who was not among the No Borders group at the camp – knew it was being used.

They gave me passport - and cash for tickets

Brem, the son of a wealthy former record company executive, is himself linked to far-Left groups. While a university, where he studied drawing and applied arts, he was involved with Counterfire, a splinter group from the Socialist Workers’ Party.

And last year he was one of a number of activists who staged an environmental protest in Bristol, chaining themselves to trees to stop them being felled for a bus route.

Since graduating in 2014, Brem has spent time working for a charity at a refugee camp in Serbia, and one former university friend said yesterday that the last she heard ‘he was living in Greece’. Bashar insists he has never met Brem, who could not be contacted last week.

Recalling his flight to the UK, the asylum-seeker recalls waking up on August 7 and smoking cigarettes with his brother when ‘these people came to the camp who wanted to help them’.

Bashar said the No Borders interpreter handed him the passport belonging to Marius Brem (right), a 24-year-old Austrian who graduated from UWE in 2014

They identified themselves as No Borders activists and asked Bashar about conditions in the camp and his experiences in his homeland. ‘An Italian woman in her 20s was crying from the heart,’ he said. Afterwards the Syrian interpreter asked which country he wanted to go to and he replied: ‘England.’

Later, after visiting the man at the No Borders HQ, he was told: ‘I already have the passport you need but travelling to England is not easy. Maybe they will catch you and take the passport so you need to think carefully about how you will act.’

The man insisted that the passport was valid.

Scruffily dressed and carrying a small holdall containing a few clothes, Bashar felt conspicuous among the hordes of tourists at Athens airport.

He maintains that he passed through five points where his passport was checked, and he was allowed to walk on unchallenged, and it was only when he failed the digital security checks on arrival Stansted that he was finally rumbled.

I was given tips to stop me getting caught

First though, he had to navigate the Ryanair ticket desk.

‘There was a lady there,’ he said. ‘I told her I wanted a ticket to England, London. She replied, “London Stansted” and I said, “Yes”, though I hadn’t heard of Stansted. It was going to cost €224 and I had €244 so I was full of happiness.’

‘She took my passport and asked me if Marius was my name. I said, “Of course that is my name” The passport picture is similar to me in some ways but he had long hair and I have short hair. The man’s eyes were blue and mine are brown.’

At the check-in desk, his passport photo was ‘looked at five times in 20 seconds’ but he was eventually waved on. There were three more checks before he boarded the flight, he said, but nobody stopped him. He added: ‘It was wonderful. Maybe it was help from God to give me the power to calm down. I am a good man and I told myself I deserve this. When I got on the plane I felt happiness but only in silence.’

At Stansted, he was asked at the electronic passport gates to look into a camera to match his image against his passport. It failed three times, the Home Office documents say.

Bashar said that a woman in a Border Force uniform then carried out a manual check, then turned to her colleagues and said calmly: ‘We have a little problem.’

Bashar insists he has never met Brem (pictured), who could not be contacted last week

He was asked for his wallet where officers found his Syrian identity card. Bashar recalls one said: ‘Oh you are Syrian? First question, why did you come here?’. Bashar hesitated and the man then asked if was seeking asylum to which Bashar said ‘Yes’.

‘I was scared but he was very kind. When he found out I was a Syrian I think he wanted to help me because I came from a war. He asked me to go with him and answer a few questions but he asked if I was hungry, tired or felt cold. In Greece I have seen some bad people but since I have been in the UK nobody has been bad. They respect you.’

What surprised Bashar next was that officials did not want to know how he made it to the UK. Instead they asked about the situation in Syria. ‘He was shocked,’ Bashar said of one of the officers. ‘I think he wanted to know that I deserved to be a refugee. They were very kind with me. I was feeling happy because I could not believe I had reached the UK. It was like Heaven.’

He said a taxi ferried him late that night to a hostel where he stayed for three days. When he rang his mother she ‘was crying with happiness’.

Bashar now lives on £5 a day which he uses to buy cheap food and spends his days watching films on a small TV. The Fast And Furious US action movies are his favourites.

‘Life is peaceful, like I cannot describe,’ he beamed.

Recalling the war in his homeland, he said: ‘If you stay in Deir Ezzor you die because there is no food, no bread, no internet or electricity. But every second of my time here I have been met by kind people who just want to help.’

Aviation expert Julian Bray said: ‘Worryingly, coming in on a scheduled flight is now becoming a mainstream opportunity for unauthorised people to get into Britain.

‘He could have been anybody getting on that plane. There’s absolutely no excuse for it and the Greek authorities must raise their game...the airline must also increase its security. The only good news is that he was picked up this end.’

Ryanair declined to comment and Athens International Airport did not respond to questions.