'We didn’t get paid' Activists facing charges of smuggling migrants into Europe hit back
TWO Spanish activists face three years in jail after they were caught on the Greek border trying to smuggle eight migrants into Europe.
Spanish activists confirm they moved refugees ILLEGALLY
Mikel Zuloaga and Begona Huarte were trying to cross to Italy by boat with the migrants when they were arrested in the port of Igoumenitsa, in north-western Greece.
A coastguard confirmed the pair had been detained after the migrants were found in a hidden compartment of their camper van.
"They were driving a camper van with eight people from Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran hidden inside," the Greek source said.
"They are currently held at the Igoumenitsa coastguard office and will appear before a prosecutor on Friday."
Mikel Zuloaga and Begona Huarte openly admit they tried to smuggle migrants across the border
Denying they had done anything illegal, the activists said they could not be regarded as people smugglers because they had not been paid for the service.
Adding they should be released because they were simply defending human rights, Mr Zuloaga insisted it was "civil disobedience" which had been cofounded by social organisations.
The man, who belongs to organisation 'Plataforma Ongi Etorri Errefuxiatuak', which means 'Platform To Welcome Refugees’, said: "We publicly declare that we have illegally transferred refugees.
“We maintain that we assume the consequences of this initiative from the non-collaboration with this barbarism comparable with other deplorable crimes in history.
Greece conference to tackle migrant crisis
We publicly declare that we have illegally transferred refugees
“We obey human rights and openly disobey European governments that have turned borders into areas of death, detention and dehumanisation for thousands of people.
"As long as governments continue to legalise horror, violating human rights and not increasing refugee quotas, people have the right to disobey and convert the Basque Country into a host land."
Spanish officials said they shared the sympathies over human rights issues caused by the current migrant crisis but did not share the methodology chosen by the pair to solve the problem.
Platform To Welcome Refugees said the eight migrants had been released and immediately applied for asylum in Greece.
More than 160,000 refugees have arrived in the Mediterranean country this year
It added one of the migrants they had attempted to smuggle into Italy included a transgender woman.
The Spanish activists' arrest comes as the European Union was brutalised by its own asylum office in November for withholding the migrant experts required to keep the bloc’s external borders safe.
José Carreira, the Director of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), warned the lack of support from member states was compromising the Continent’s security as it lacked the resources to screen migrants arriving in Greece.
More than 160,000 refugees have arrived in the Mediterranean country this year, and despite the figure dropping 57 per cent after 385,069 arrived last year, the agency is still struggling to cope.