MUST READ: NTV’s Sandra Twinoburyo Survives Sexual Assault, her Passport Stolen in Turkey

NTV news anchor Sandra Twinoburyo is in tears after a man tried to touch her inappropriately in an elevator in Istanbul, Turkey.

“After a wonderful trip in Berlin, I lost my passport as I was transiting through Istanbul,” said Twinoburyo on Tuesday morning, adding, “I still strongly believe someone intentionally took it from me.”

She further said she was “almost sexually assaulted by an officer who had offered to assist me and tried to touch me inappropriately in an elevator.”

Cases of criminal syndicates at airports in Eastern Europe have been on the rise in recent years.

Thugs usually steal passports from travelers before extorting money from their victims purporting to help them.

The stolen passports are usually sold to smugglers, criminals, refugees, and spies since Turkey is the world’s gateway to the conflict in Syria.

When a passport is reported stolen, it gets flagged in an international database kept by Interpol. But border authorities receive an alert only if they check the passport against this database, and often they don’t.

Stolen passports have been used to travel abroad for years — by asylum-seekers, criminals, terrorists — and there was a market for them in Istanbul long before the Syrian war. But the refugee crisis has created a surge in demand.

“I will never forget this man’s face,” Twinobryo recalled her nasty experience.

“I only wish I had taken his picture but I was too scared to. I struggled to get help but everyone seemed to push me back and forth.”

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