A group that has helped over 15,000 migrants and refugees cross European borders has been caught on tape admitting to systematically training asylum seekers to exploit screening interviews by faking trauma and persecution.
According to RT.com, Ariel Ricker, the executive director of Advocates Abroad, a major non-profit NGO which provides legal aid to migrants, has been caught on tape openly discussing how she teaches refugees to lie to border agents. The video was released by Canadian right-wing activist, author and internet personality, Lauren Southern, and will be a part of her new documentary film project 'Borderless,' which takes on the European migration crisis.
One method she teaches migrants is to exploit the presumed Christian sympathies of the predominantly Orthodox Greeks is by pretending to have been persecuted for being Christian. She even describes telling them how to pray during interviews, ironically because doing so reflects “honesty.”
At first, the organization responded to the initial release of the video, tweeting:
Since then, however, the group’s Twitter and Facebook page with over 140,000 followers have both been deleted in the wake of the revelations.
The organization, which was founded in 2016, helped to shuffle migrants into a cash-strapped Greece, which was struggling to recover from its long-term government-debt crisis. The majority of migrants seeking entry into Europe first come through Greece, with arrivals peaking in 2015.
Southern claims that the UNHCR has already responded to the tapes by saying that they are “alarmed by these reports,” and the backlash on social media has been understandably strong.
Lauren Southern has said, "During our undercover investigation into NGOs working in the Greek Islands, we have come into possession of recordings of Ariel Ricker, Executive Director of Advocates Abroad admitting to unethical and illegal practices. Advocates Abroad is a large scale NGO providing legal aid to refugees and migrants seeking asylum in Europe. Their 380 advocates are primarily involved in preparing refugees and migrants for their asylum interviews. The recorded admissions are particularly concerning given the organisation’s links to a fundraising campaign between University of Cambridge students and 12 British MPs which raised in excess of $60,000 US for the organisation."
*Watch the video here:
https://twitter.com/Lauren_Southern/status/1062030780422008833
*Source: rt.com
