Europol working closely with Greek police on migration crisis

Europol Executive Director, Catherine De Bolle met yesterday in Athens with Citizen Protection Minister Olga Gerovassili and Greek Police Chief Aristidis Andrikopoulos and discussed their co-operation in dealing with the migrant crisis.

"The level of cooperation between Europol and the Hellenic Police (HP) is excellent," said De Bolle following the meeting.

De Bolle confirmed that Europol has seconded six officers permanently in Lesvos who are working together with the Greek authorities to deal with the high number of migrants and refugees at the Moria hotspot.

"Europol and Hellenic Police already have a roadmap focusing on two main areas of activity,” she added. Firstly, Europol officers in Lesvos will support HP-led investigations; secondly, at the request of Greece police Europol will perform checks against its databases to establish whether or not there are links to other criminal actions, De Bolle explained.