Terrorists are arriving as migrants untracked, admits EU border force
TERRORISTS are using the migration crisis to enter Europe and plot atrocities across the continent, the European Union’s border agency has admitted.
In a report that lays bare the concerns about the EU’s borders, Frontex conceded that it does not know the number of migrants and has no way of tracking them.
It said that EU member states had reported a record 1.82 million illegal border crossings last year, six times higher than the previous record set in 2014.
However, it admitted that the number of illegal crossings was an underestimation because so many migrants had “continued their journey without being detected”.
It warned that a “staggering number” of EU citizens have travelled to Syria to fight with Isil and that they are now posing as refugees to gain entry to Europe.
The admission will increase fears that the EU is unable to track potential terrorists such as those
who committed the atrocities in Paris and Brussels. It also undermines claims made by supporters of the EU, who say that Britain is safer as a member of the bloc.
“The Paris attacks in November 2015 clearly demonstrated that irregular migratory flows could be used by terrorists to enter the EU,” Frontex said in its report. “With no thorough check or penalties in place for those making such false declarations, there is a risk that some persons representing a security threat to the EU may be taking advantage of this situation.”
Two of the Islamists involved in the Paris attacks had entered through the Greek island of Leros and were registered by Greek authorities after presenting fraudulent Syrian documents.
The eastern Mediterranean route, especially the Greek islands in the Aegean, accounted for the largest number of detections – nearly 885,400, the report found.
In a damning assessment of the EU’s ability to police its borders, the report said: “There is no EU system capable of tracing people’s movements following an illegal border crossing. Therefore it is not possible to establish the precise number of persons who have illegally crossed two sections of the external borders of the EU.”
Frontex added that it is “difficult for [EU] member states to ensure an efficient, high and uniform level of control at their external border”.
The report also warns that criminal gangs are able to smuggle weapons and drugs across EU borders.
Dominic Raab, the Eurosceptic justice minister, said: “This is a damning indictment by the very EU body charged with managing Europe’s external border.
“Frontex has set out all too starkly the risks, including from crime and terrorism, that the EU’s free movement rules leave Britain wide open to. With no solution in sight, the safer option is for Britain to leave the EU in order regain control over our borders.”