Police have arrested a migrant from Tajikistan, wanted for being a member of Islamic State, who had been living in Greece for three years in a house given to him by an NGO.
The 27-year-old had been living in the Greek city of Tripoli where he had been helped by NGOs, although there is no evidence the groups knew his extremist background.
According to a report from Greek newspaper Proto Thema, the man was living in Tripoli with his wife and children. His wife is allegedly a known dissident in their native Tajikistan. The man was wanted on an international arrest warrant.
He was arrested at random during a police check outside of the city, where police discovered he had been “red-flagged” and was wanted internationally. The local prosecutor and Greece’s counter-terrorism service are examining the case.
According to Kathimerini, Tajikistan authorities consider him a high-ranking Islamic State official. The migrant claims, however, that his wife is the sister of the opposition leader in their home country, and that the warrant was issued against him for political reasons.
He arrived in Greece in 2017 after travelling through Turkey and landing on the Aegean island of Lesbos, where he registered at the notorious Moria camp which was burned down by some of its migrant residents in September.
The arrest is just the latest to see a suspected member of Islamic State taken into custody after coming to Europe as an asylum seeker.
In 2016, the Federal German Intelligence service (BND) claimed that hundreds of Islamic State fighters had come to Europe disguised as asylum seekers. That same year an ISIS “commander” was arrested in a small German village where he lived as a refugee.
In 2017 it was also revealed that the terror group was paying cash to migrants to cover their travel costs if they were willing to wage jihad once they arrived in Europe.