MADRID: Police in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki have arrested two people for allegedly belonging to a ring that sold falsified identity documents to refugees, enabling them to travel on to Germany.
A police statement says that the two suspects, a 30-year-old Algerian man and a 33-year-old Albanian woman, charged each refugee between 2,500 euros ($2,800) and 4,500 euros ($5,000) for their services.
Police also arrested three Syrian refugees who had allegedly bought documents from the suspects and were due to fly to Germany from Thessaloniki. The papers they would have travelled with were stolen Greek identity cards whose original photos had been changed.
About 62,000 refugees and other migrants are trapped in Greece. Most want to travel on to Europe’s prosperous heartland.
