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GREECE-MIGRANTS-ARREST
Migrants posing as basketball team blocked out by Greek police
ATHENS, Sept 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Ten migrants posing as a basketball team
were arrested at Athens’ International Airport trying to travel with
illegally obtained passports, Greek police said on Sunday.
Police said the migrants, who had entered Greece without legal documents,
arrived at the Eleftherios Venizelos airport on Saturday posing as a
basketball team, hoping the disguise would get them past controls more
easily.
They wore matching outfits, carried matching sports bags and, for good
measure, brought two basketballs.
But border police established that the passports they presented had been
illegally obtained, and arrested the group.
According to police sources, they are Syrian nationals who had hoped to
travel to Zurich with Ukrainian passports.
Migrants arriving in Greece often make great efforts to slip through
closed Greek frontiers to reach other destinations.
According to the latest official numbers, there are more than 26,600
asylum seekers in overcrowded camps on Lesbos, Chios and Samos, the Greek
islands at the forefront of the migrant influx.
BSS/AFP/RY/1917 hrs