Greece
Five border guards were charged with smuggling migrants
The agents allegedly contacted a network in Turkey and received bribes. Telephones, Turkish liras and Asian currency notes were found in their homes.
Posted
On Turkish soil, migrants take an inflatable boat, also known as Maritza or Merik, to cross the Evros River to Greece.
Reuters
In Greece, five border police officers were charged Tuesday with complicity in a network that smuggled migrants from Turkey into the country illegally. The day after the police’s internal affairs unit announced their arrests, the five appeared at the public prosecutor’s office in the city of Oresteada. They are suspected of accepting bribes and dereliction of duty.
They are accused of helping smuggle an unknown number of migrants to Greece on at least twelve occasions in the Didymoteicho area. “According to the first elements of the investigation, the police have been in contact with networks in Turkey since October, and they have implemented measures or omissions aimed at facilitating the entry of non-Europeans into our country” , explains Internal Affairs.
Sixty mobile phones, Turkish liras and banknotes of several Asian countries were found, police said.
They want to go through the river
Thousands of migrants, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have arrived in Greece in recent years from Turkey, hoping to enter Western Europe. Increased patrols in the Aegean make it difficult for them to access Greek islands, and more of them try to cross the Evros River (also known as Maritza or Merik, depending on the language) that separates Greece from Turkey, so smugglers take them by road.
Athens has decided to extend the five-meter-high metal fence to 35 kilometers within a year. It is currently 37.5 km long and aims to extend it by an additional 100 km by 2026, according to government data.
(AFP)
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