Last week, a Syrian national by the name of F. Hassan was detained in Budapest by the personnel of the Counterterrorism Centre (TEK) on suspicion of acts of terror, including the planning of several suicide bombings and carrying out multiple executions back in 2016.

An investigation by TEK (in collaboration with Europol and intelligence services) quickly followed to determine the European connections of the Syrian man. F. Hassan, who is believed to have been a high-ranking member of the Islamic State, got asylum in Greece. After that, he took advantage of the open-border Schengen Area and managed to visit several other European countries before coming to Hungary.

And now comes the shocking part.

It was back in November 2018 when the whole business of anonymous bank cards first surfaced. To recap: migrants were provided with nameless bank cards if the following conditions applied:

• they arrived in Greece after 1 January 2015,
• they are above 18 years of age,
• they are not employed,
• and they have been registered by the Greek police.

Theoretically, these bank cards can only be used in Greece, and only if the immigrant visits the Greek authorities for regular check-ups. However, the bank cards were found scattered around even in the Balkans, which clearly shows how easily this scheme can be outplayed.

After initially denying the fact, the European Commission finally admitted that the United Nations and the EU have been distributing these cards to migrants who have reached the territory of the European Union.

It is estimated that some 64 000 bank cards were distributed to migrants in January alone. One last thing to consider is the fact that F. Hassan received a monthly payment of 500 euros for two years straight. Considering that he was only one among the thousands of migrants who received money this way, it is quite daunting to consider the amount of taxpayer money Brussels has spent to encourage immigration.