Honduras detains 5 Syrians with stolen Greek passports

Five Syrian nationals were detained by Honduran authorities Wednesday after trying to enter the country with stolen Greek passports before supposedly making their way to the United States, Aníbal Baca, a spokesman for the Criminal Police Bureau, said. “The passports had been doctored to replace the photographs with those of the Syrians, police said”.

“We are not saying they are terrorists”, Baca said.

Baca said Wednesday that the men indicated they planned to travel to the United States.

Reports that at least one of the Paris attackers was believed to have slipped into Europe among migrants registered in Greece prompted several Western countries to begin to question their willingness to take in refugees.

Earlier this week, authorities in St. Maarten detained three people who they said were of Syrian descent and were traveling with false Greek passports, according to information provided by St. Maarten authorities to US law enforcement, a USA official said.

From there they were to make their way to Honduras’ second city of San Pedro Sula with the aim of going overland through Guatemala, then Mexico and on to the United States, Baca told AFP.

None of the detentions have been tied to terrorism.

There was no indication that the men were suspected of anything except carrying stolen documents to the Central American nation.

The ESTA system is used to verify that travelers from countries that aren’t required to apply for a visa are eligible to visit the U.S.