Politico Europe on Tuesday cited an unnamed spokesperson for the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) as saying an investigation has begun into alleged “irregularities” involving EU funds provided to Greece to better care for the hundreds of thousands of would-be migrants and asylum-seekers streaming into the country after 2015.
The OLAF official, according to the Brussels-based online news outlet, said the probe comes after allegations reached the EU Commission’s directorate-general for migration and home affairs last year.
“As the investigation is on-going, OLAF cannot issue any further comment at this stage…the fact that OLAF is examining the matter does not mean that any persons/entities involved have committed an irregularity/fraud,” Politico quotes the spokesperson as saying in an email.
Politico also cites the weekend arrest and overnight detention of a newspaper and website publisher, an editor and a reporter in Athens, hours after the “Fileleftheros” newspaper ran a front-page story claiming that businesspeople close to Defense Minister Panos Kammenos received emergency defense ministry contracts for newly established migrant reception centers.
Following Kammenos’ criminal complaint for malicious libel – submitted at a police precinct and not before a prosecutor – police officers arrested the trio on Saturday. A prosecutor ordered their release a day later.
