[Islamic] Militants posing as migrants? Unlikely, say European experts

Reuters ^ | Fri Aug 28, 2015 | 7:15 AM EDT | Mark Trevelyan

[Olog-hai]

The risk that groups like Islamic State could smuggle militants into Europe under cover of a huge wave of migrants is much smaller than some politicians suggest, according to security specialists with close ties to governments and intelligence agencies.

By the end of July, more than a third of a million migrants and refugees had entered the European Union, mainly via Italy, Greece and Hungary, according to EU border agency Frontex. The flow has continued unabated through August.

Once inside the bloc’s borderless Schengen zone, the new arrivals—many from countries like Syria and Iraq where Islamic State holds sway over vast areas—are free to travel through 26 countries without restrictions or checks.

That has prompted anti-immigration parties such as Italy’s Northern League and Britain’s UKIP to issue dire warnings about the threat of infiltration. […]

But such warnings meet with skepticism from security experts who point out that the flow of fighters has mainly been in the opposite direction, from Europe toward the Middle East. …

[SunkenCiv]

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