An Egyptian man is on trial for allegedly identifying as a Syrian refugee when he entered Greece in May.
The man managed to get admitted into Greece and had a 9-month run in the country, despite being on the list of undesirable aliens and having his fingerprints registered in the system. He tried the same scheme in 2013 when he was deported from the country for posing as Iraqi.
The man may face up to five years in prison. Authorities said Monday they have no reason to believe he engaged in any further illegal activities.
Economic migrants from North Africa and the Middle East have taken advantage of Greece’s near non-existent border controls. Germany recently reported that 8 percent of the 6,822 Syrian passports it examined between January and October of 2015 were fake. A majority of those people entered the European Union through Greece.
The issue came to light when it was revealed that one of the men who carried out the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris had traveled to Greece from Syria using a fake Syrian passport. (RELATED: Paris Attacker Was A Syrian ‘Refugee’)
Greece is under a lot of fire from the European Union and has been given 90 days to improve its border controls. If it fails to show improvement, the Schengen agreement for free movement will effectively be suspended for a two-year period of time. (RELATED: Greece Has Exactly 90 Days To Avoid A Refugee Disaster)
Violent protests against a new refugee center on the island of Kos are currently taking place. The center will be one of several hotspots where authorities separate genuine Syrian refugees from economic migrants. Locals are scared that the refugee center will scare tourists away from the Mediterranean island, as it accounts for more than 95 percent of the island’s economy.
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