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From within, the Greek authorities attacked the smuggling network with a coordinated operation that lasted a total of almost four months.
A key role in Operation Alkmini was played by two agents of the National Intelligence Service, who, Kathimerini revealed on Sunday, went to Izmir, Turkey, posing as illegal immigrants and discovered the illegal immigration network involving 35 members of four NGO.
We have NGOs in the Greek islands and NGOs in Turkey and they seem to cooperate and direct, with or without pay, people who are in Turkey to enter our country illegally. They were monitoring frequencies, they were monitoring the port and we had entered the border of what we call espionage, explained Notis Mitarakis, Minister of Immigration and Asylum, emphasizing, among other things, that there is no longer tolerance for illegal behavior.
Operation Alkmini took place on August 12. The two agents went to Izmir and posed as immigrants looking for a way to get to Greece.
They found contact with NGO executives who promoted them to smuggling circuits. From there they boarded a boat with dozens of people and crossed from Turkey to the shores of Mytilene.
As it resulted in the Alkmini operation, two female members of an Austrian and Norwegian NGO moving on the Turkish coast were the intermediaries between the smugglers and the immigrants.
The 4 NGOs used the “AlarmPhone” application, a peculiar emergency number for migrants crossing the area from the Turkish shores to the Greek islands.
The migrants called the number managed by the NGOs and reported their exact location. The NGO members contacted the port agency and asked its executives to pick up the ship with the migrants. In another case they gave a false stigma of shipwreck to mislead the authorities.
Members of the NGO collaborated with Turkish slave traders and, according to government sources, undermined the country’s national security.
The EYP recorded communications between the crew of the ship that was anchored in Lesbos and the NGO based in Turkey.
They referred to the “exchange of information on the migratory flows that have come or will come from Turkey, as well as the place, the time of departure and the people to be transferred.”
Police raided the ship and confiscated notes, electronic devices and mobile phones of the crew. The 35 involved, all foreigners of German, Swiss, French, Bulgarian, Spanish, Austrian and Norwegian origin, have fled the country.
Source: skai.gr
