Abdi Elmi, a former politician belonging to Sweden’s Social Democrats, was arrested in Greece after being caught with passports that were not his own.
The arrest is said to have taken place back in July at an airport in Athens. Greek police stated that the former Social Democrat was travelling with Swedish passports that did not belong to him.
According to a report from the Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio, Swedish Border Police believes that such passports are taken to places like Greece in order to help migrants get to Sweden illegally, but Greek police have not commented on whether or not they believe Elmi’s passports were meant to help facilitate illegal migration.
The leftist is said to be free on bail conditions at this time.
Last year, another former member of the Social Democrats was arrested after being accused of helping to smuggle migrants illegally into Sweden.
Syrian migrant Rashad Alasaad was the subject of a Swedish media investigation which found that the 27-year-old charged 2-3,000 euros for passports to help children and adults enter Sweden illegally.
The Swedish journalists who investigated his activities also met with Alasaad on the Greek island of Crete after the Syrian claimed that passport controls were too strict in Athens — where Mr Elmi was recently taken into custody.
Alasaad bragged of smuggling his entire family from Syria to Sweden and later admitted his actions were just about making money, saying: “Let me tell you why I do it. To be honest with you, the main reason is money. I want money.”
Along with politicians, Swedish journalists have also been arrested for helping to illegally smuggle migrants with Swedish journalist Fredrik Önnevall, an employee of public broadcaster SVT, being convicted of human trafficking in 2018.
The young migrant the journalist smuggled into the country was later convicted of knife crimes a year later in 2019.