Anti-ISIS Task Force to be Deployed in Greece

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Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, will deploy 200 counter terrorism officers to the Greek islands in an effort to thwart a “strategic”-level campaign by ISIS to infiltrate terrorists into Europe.

Europol facilitates cooperation among EU national police forces against organized crime and terrorism.

According to homeland security newswire, the new task force will be deployed alongside Greek border guards and use technologies developed by British security forces at Heathrow to help spot potential terrorists.

“We have, in the past year and a half, seen a strategic decision by ISIS to do that and carryout spectacular attacks of the type we saw in France in Brussels,” Europol Director Rob Wainwright told the Evening Standard. “There will be further attempts at that kind of activity,” he added.

The new deployment, which Europol originally announced in May, comes against the backdrop of a growing concern about ISIS’s attempts to exploit the flow of refugees from Syria and other parts of the Middle East. ISIS fighters have been posing as refugees to take advantage of disenchanted immigrants staying in refugee camps in Greece and the Balkans, according to the Express.

Europol said that its officials discovered several forged passports in a Greek refugee camp which officers believe were intended for use by ISIS operatives.

European security agencies are also worried that more foreign fighters will be trying to return home as ISIS comes under increasing pressures in Syria and Iraq.

Wainwright said the counterterrorism operatives will be deployed on rotation to Greece and possibly Italy in the coming weeks.

“There will be a second line of defense. We hope to deploy some into the camps where the refugees, the asylum seekers, are being held,” Wainwright said.