A total of 35 people, 33 of them workers from four separate Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), have been implicated by Greek police in helping to smuggle illegal migrants to the Aegean island of Lesbos.
The 33 NGO workers are said to come from a variety of countries including Austria, Germany, Norway, France, Switzerland and Spain, while two non-NGO workers are said to be migrants from Iran and Pakistan.
Greek investigators say the group started their activities in June of 2019 and that between them they had facilitated at least 32 border crossings that saw an estimated 3,000 asylum seekers enter the country illegally, newspaper Proto Thema reports.
The group is also said to have used private internet groups and messaging applications to coordinate information on where migrant boats would leave and arrive on Lesbos.
According to Proto Thema, the NGO members worked with people traffickers in order to get information on migrant boats leaving the Turkish coast, including coordinates and how many migrants were on board the ships.
