New boatload of migrants on Evia
Nearly 90 people were arrested yesterday for illegally entering Greece by sea and road, while three migrant smugglers were arrested in two separate incidents in Thrace and central Greece. On Evia early yesterday morning, police arrested 40 illegal immigrants, believed to be mostly Iraqi Kurds, who were set ashore just after midnight on the island’s eastern coast near the popular beach of Hiliadou. Just before 10 a.m., a coast guard patrol located a 12-meter yacht without name or registration data in the sea to the east of Evia, and arrested two Turkish nationals – whose names were not released – on suspicion of having landed the immigrants. On Saturday, another 80 illegal immigrants were found marooned on a desert islet off Evia’s western coast. The smuggling vessel that had ferried them over from Turkey was not found. In Thrace, a few kilometers from the Turkish border, police discovered 49 Iraqi Kurd, Pakistani and Chinese illegal immigrants hidden in an Athens-bound lorry driven by Constantinos Vaiopoulos, 31, who was arrested for migrant smuggling.
