For the third time in three years, Syrian migrants tried to flee Greece by pretending to be a sports team. According to the Spiegel news outlet, nine Syrians in Athens, disguised as members of a volleyball team with fake travel documents, tried to board a flight to Vienna. However, the police successfully stopped them.
Last year, the police detained 12 Syrians who pretended to be handball players and provided fake Bulgarian passports during a pre-flight check. They were also heading to Vienna.
In 2019, ten Syrian refugees dressed as volleyball players with stolen and forged passports were arrested at a Greek airport trying to leave the country.
As Greece is often the first country migrants reach in the European Union, the law requires them to remain there until their asylum applications are processed.
