Greek police arrested a 27-year-old Tajikistan national in the southern Greece city of Tripoli on Wednesday afternoon when a routine ID check revealed an international arrest warrant for his alleged ties to the ISIS terrorist group.
The man, along with his wife and four children had illegally landed on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos in 2017 after setting off from the opposite Turkish coast aboard a "migrant boat". After requesting and receiving refugee status the family was transported to the mainland and hosted in an apartment leased by an NGO.
The anti-terrorist unit was notified when the warrant was revealed, while he remained "off the radar" of the unit while in Greece.
Greek authorities are reportedly in contact with Tajik counterparts after the man's arrest.
Hundreds of thousands of third country nationals entered or attempted to enter Greece after 2015, taking advantage of the then SYRIZA government's policy to allow the landing of migrant boats on a handful of Greek isles, with their subsequent transport to the mainland and a continued "open borders" trek towards preferred destinations in central and western Europe, especially Germany.
