Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-05-26

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Illegals unwittingly enter Athos

[01] Illegals unwittingly enter Athos

The four women and one man were dropped off at the jetty of the Megisti Lavra Monastery by migrant smugglers over the weekend.

Mount Athos occupies one of the three promontories that comprise the verdant Halkidiki peninsula, east of Thessaloniki and almost in the middle of the Macedonia province of northern Greece.

According to police inspector Stergios Apostolidis, monks discovered two of the foreign women at the monastery's tiny harbour on Sunday afternoon and alerted local police. A subsequent search by police and coast guard officers led to the discovery the remaining three illegals, who had spent the night on a nearby beach when they saw police arrive.

They told police that they were dropped off at the monastery by two Ukrainian immigrant smugglers that had picked them up from Turkey. The five would-be migrants, aged between 27 and 41, had each paid 4,000 euros to be ferried into Greece. They also claim that the Ukrainian smugglers had dropped them off at the site without informing them that they were on Mount Athos.

Caption: A file photo dated Wednesday 03 March 2004 shows the Hilandarion Monastery, run by Serb monks, on the Mount Athos peninsula of northern Greece. Mount Athos is home to a semi-autonomous monastic community that dates back to the 5th century AD, from where women are barred. ANA-MPA/EPA/KOTSIARIS

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