Group of 38 Iraqi tourists absconds in Moscow

An employee of a travel company reported the disappearance of a large group of foreigners to police. The woman pointed out that the Iraqis (about nine families: men, women, children) arrived in Moscow on April 30 and were supposed to take several excursions during the week.

The tourists’ passports were handed over to the hotel reception with instructions not to give them to tourists. The passports could only be handed over to the tourist guide at the time of departure for excursions.

Strange things started happening the following day. The Iraqis refused to go sightseeing and tried to obtain their passports at the reception desk under various pretexts. Hotel employees strongly refused to hand over the passports to the tourists. The Iraqis eventually left the hotel in an unknown direction, without their passports.

The travel agency suspects that the Iraqis had absolutely no interest in seeing Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral, but wanted to obtain refugee status and stay in Russia instead.