Honduran officials have revealed that the five Syrians who recently entered their country with doctored Greek passports have requested asylum.

As previously reported, the men were arrested last week at Toncontín International Airport in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

Rigoberto Chang Castillo, the Honduran minister for human rights, said the Syrians requested asylum, as their lives were at risk back in their own home country.

As the arrests came just days after the terror attacks in Paris, the detained Syrians raised much concern. The fact that the men were able to easily travel through a number of Latin American countries without being stopped also called attention to the integrity of Latin American checkpoint security.

U.S. Senator James Risch, a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, described the situation as very troubling.

As the BBC reports, the Syrians were arrested and charged with falsifying documents, after Greek diplomats were called to the airport terminal and discovered that the five men did not speak any Greek. Honduran authorities said that there was no evidence that the men, who ranged in age from 21 to 30, had any links to militant Islam.

According to police spokesman Anibal Baca, the men left Greece and passed through Turkey, Brazil, Argentina and San Jose, Costa Rica, before finally being detained in Tegucigalpa. Their plan was to proceed from Honduras to Guatemala and then on to the U.S.

Chang Castillo said the request for asylum would be considered, despite the fact that the men had been charged with forging official documents.

The question of what to do with Syrian refugees seeking asylum from their war-torn country has become a global concern.

President Obama recently castigated politicians who are seeking to make it harder for Syrian refugees to enter the U.S.

As quoted in The Atlantic, Obama said, “When I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful. That’s not American.”