ATHENS: Greek authorities on the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos say they are drawing up a criminal case, including on charges of espionage, against 10 people, all foreign nationals, for allegedly helping migrants enter the country illegally.
Police in Lesbos said on Monday the investigation had been ongoing for several months and was being carried out in cooperation with Greece’s intelligence service and anti-terrorism task force. No charges have been brought and no suspects have been publicly identified.
Greece has been repeatedly accused by rights groups and migrants of carrying out summary deportations of newly arrived migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum — an illegal practice known as pushbacks. The government strenuously denies the accusations, labeling them as “fake news,” but has stressed it is robustly patrolling its land and sea borders with Turkey, which are also the external borders of the European Union.
The country has been one of the preferred entry points into the EU of people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia for years. Its frequently tense relations with neighboring Turkey have led to what Athens has said is the weaponization of migrants by Ankara, which it accuses of encouraging people to cross into Greece as a means of pressuring both Greece and the EU.
There has been mounting evidence suggesting Greek authorities do carry out pushbacks, including photos of migrants picked up by the Turkish coast guard after the same people had appeared in photos shared with rights groups showing them with identifiable landmarks on Greek islands.
Police said the case involves four members of undisclosed non-governmental organizations and another six people. All are under investigation for espionage, assisting the illegal entry of foreign nationals, impeding Greek authorities’ investigations and violating migration laws.
The police described the activities as “organized” and said they date to early June 2020, “in the form of providing essential assistance to organized networks of illegal smuggling of migrants” under the guise of performing humanitarian work. The case involves migrant arrivals on the islands of Chios, Lesbos and Samos.
As evidence of suspicious activity, police listed communication through mobile messaging applications with migrants leaving the Turkish shores.
According to the police announcement, those under investigation would advise recent arrivals to head either to areas of difficult terrain to hide, or to health care facilities, thereby “systematically complicating the work of the responsible Greek authorities.”
It said the investigation so far indicated the people under investigation had assisted in “the illegal entry of a significant number of third country nationals” to Greek islands. Authorities are continuing the investigation into potential further contacts and activities, police said.
Greek police prepare criminal case on migrant smuggling
https://arab.news/49fej
Greek police prepare criminal case on migrant smuggling
- Police said investigation had been ongoing for months in cooperation with intelligence service and anti-terrorism task force
- Greece has been repeatedly accused of carrying out summary deportations of migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum
Nigeria signals more strikes likely in ‘joint’ US operations
- Nigeria on Friday signalled more strikes against jihadist groups were expected after a Christmas Day bombardment by US forces against militants in the north of the country
LAGOS: Nigeria on Friday signalled more strikes against jihadist groups were expected after a Christmas Day bombardment by US forces against militants in the north of the country.
The west African country faces multiple interlinked security crises in its north, where jihadists have been waging an insurgency in the northeast since 2009 and armed “bandit” gangs raid villages and stage kidnappings in the northwest.
The US strikes come after Abuja and Washington were locked in a diplomatic dispute over what Trump characterised as the mass killing of Christians amid Nigeria’s myriad armed conflicts.
Washington’s framing of the violence as amounting to Christian “persecution” is rejected by the Nigerian government and independent analysts, but has nonetheless resulted in increased security coordination.
“It’s Nigeria that provided the intelligence,” the country’s foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, told broadcaster Channels TV, saying he was on the phone with US State Secretary Marco Rubio ahead of the bombardment.
Asked if there would be more strikes, Tuggar said: “It is an ongoing thing, and we are working with the US. We are working with other countries as well.”
Targets unclear
The Department of Defense’s US Africa Command, using an acronym for the Daesh group, said “multiple Daesh terrorists” were killed in an attack in the northwestern state of Sokoto.
US defense officials later posted video of what appeared to be the nighttime launch of a missile from the deck of a battleship flying the US flag.
Which of Nigeria’s myriad armed groups were targeted remains unclear.
Nigeria’s jihadist groups are mostly concentrated in the northeast of the country, but have made inroads into the northwest.
Researchers have recently linked some members from an armed group known as Lakurawa — the main jihadist group located in Sokoto State — to Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), which is mostly active in neighboring Niger and Mali.
Other analysts have disputed those links, though research on Lakurawa is complicated as the term has been used to describe various armed fighters in the northwest.
Those described as Lakurawa also reportedly have links to Al-Qaeda affiliated group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), a rival group to ISSP.
While Abuja has welcomed the strikes, “I think Trump would not have accepted a ‘No’ from Nigeria,” said Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based researcher for Good Governance Africa, an NGO.
Amid the diplomatic pressure, Nigerian authorities are keen to be seen as cooperating with the US, Samuel told AFP, even though “both the perpetrators and the victims in the northwest are overwhelmingly Muslim.”
Tuggar said that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu “gave the go-ahead” for the strikes.
The foreign minister added: “It must be made clear that it is a joint operation, and it is not targeting any religion nor simply in the name of one religion or the other.”
