The Greek coastguard has launched an investigation into the activity of people smugglers in Turkey which is also said to involve two NGOs suspected of working with the people traffickers.
The investigation is related to illegal boat crossings that took place in the summer of last year, with the first taking place near the island of Kos, which saw police discover that the head of an NGO possessed emails with a list of the passengers aboard the boat, including names and photographs.
After the migrants told the Greek authorities of a man from Cameroon who had been linked to the smugglers and had been in the boat with them, the 40-year-old was soon arrested and it was discovered he had sent lists of passengers to NGOs prior to another illegal voyage to the Greek island of Farmakonissi, newspaper Ekathimerini reports.
The Greek coastguard determined that a Turkish coastguard officer was also involved in the trafficking network and used his credentials to assure the migrants that they would make it across the sea to Greece while charging them around a thousand euros each.
German NGOs Accused of Spying on Greek Border Authorities to Help Smuggle Migrants https://t.co/6rY0RkaJzG
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 6, 2020
The cases are not the first time NGOs have been suspected of aiding people smugglers in Greece over the last several years.
In 2020, four German NGOs were accused of using covert espionage methods, such as intercepting communications of Greek officials, in order to help migrants cross the sea without being detected by Greek authorities.
Greek authorities even planted insider agents to pose as migrants and found an Austrian and Norwegian national, both NGO workers, directly in contact with people smugglers.
A year later, 24 NGO workers from the group Emergency Response Center International (ERCI) were accused of money laundering, espionage, disclosing state secrets, and human trafficking, with the suspects allegedly involved in transporting migrants by boat to the island of Lesbos between 2016 and 2018.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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