According to information from Iefimerida, Dutch members of an NGO chartered a plane and departed from the Netherlands to Lesvos in order to take with them any refugees and illegal immigrant who wished.
The flight did not have a special permit and when Athens was informed, they contacted their colleagues in Amsterdam where they were oblivious to the fact. It was realized that this was a private initiative by members of an NGO and the aircraft was blocked in the air.
The Dutch plane was forced to land at "Eleftherios Venizelos Airport" in Athens and will return to Amsterdam, without making a stop in Lesvos and carrying out their plan.
This comes as last week, following investigations by Greek police, 33 NGO members were arrested and charged with various offenses.
The 33 were active with the four NGOs in Lesvos last summer and are accused, among other things, of espionage, violation of state secrets, establishment of a criminal organization and violations of the immigration code. The criminal case of the Mytilene Security Sub-Directorate includes two more people from Afghanistan and Iran.
The accused from the four NGOs are citizens of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, France, Norway and Bulgaria, who, according to police sources, have allegedly left the island and returned to their homelands. The network is involved in five illegal movements of migrants from the Turkish coast and 27 attempts at trafficking. According to the data of the police investigation, the activity of the organized network is determined at least from the beginning of last June, in the form of assistance in organized networks of illegal trafficking of immigrants.
Those involved, under the guise of humanitarian action, provided confidential information via internet to human traffickers and illegal immigrants. The evidence in the case file shows that they gave the positions of the vessels of the Greek Coast Guardto notify the smugglers. They even made false "shipwreck" alerts in order to activate rescue operations, in places contrary to the voyages of the smugglers in order to avoid detection.
