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Arrests of illegal immigrants at the international airports on the Dodecanese and Cyclades are turning into an everyday problem.  As a rule, the arrested have forged ID documents and travel to EU countries.
Greek police officials say that most of them are Syrians who enter the country illegally via Turkey and then buy forged passports to travel outside Greece. Immigrants consider regional airports’ control less strict than in Athens and Thessaloniki and try to take advantage of the increased number of tourists, but nonetheless they are easyiloy discovered by the police.
In certain cases, Greek and foreign traffickers were apprehended. They sometimes travel together with immigrants posing as their family members.
On Santorini
The latest case is from this Thursday when at Santorini airport three Syrians, aged 24, 26, and 27 were apprehended. They were arrested on charges of illegal entry and stay in the country and for presenting forged IDs. They were trying to get abroad by plane.
On Wednesday, 4 more people were arrested at the same airport, Syrians aged 27, 29, 32, and 35. They were trying to board a flight on forged Syrian, German and Belgian passports. On Monday, a 33-year old Syrian was arrested while trying to board a plane to Italy on a Czech passport and forged visa.  
On July 15, on Santorini again, a 41-year old Chinese and a 37-year old Afghan couple with a child were arrested. The Chinese attempted to show the couple how to avoid police control and board a flight to Austria. At the same airport, 3 Syrians were arrested while they were trying to board a plane to Denmark on forged Bulgarian and Hungarian passports.  
On Kos, Mykonos and Rhodes
Some days ago, at the airport of the island of Kos a Syrian was arrested holding a forged Italian passport and trying to fly to Italy.
On Mykonos, a 52-year old trafficker was arrested together with a 16-year old Syrian. They were posing as family and trying to get on a flight to Germany.
At the Rhodes airport, a Pakistani was arrested while trying to smuggle a 20-year old compatriot into an EU country. They were first flying to Thessaloniki and the Pakistani was to fly from there to Germany.
At the same airport, earlier this month, police officers apprehended a 44-year old Pakistani trying to go through passport control while a 20-year old Afghani was waiting next to him and tried to escape from the police. The investigation showed that  the Pakistani supplied forged documents to the Afghani and they were to go to Thessaloniki and then fly to Germany.
On Karpathos, Crete and Zakynthos
On Karpathos, in early June this year, two Syrians were arrested on forged Italian and Bulgarian passports who were trying to catch a flight to Austria.
There are over 100 arrests of immigrants who tried to illegally board a plane at Heraklion airport on Crete.
There are similar cases on Zakynthos. This Thursday, two Syrians were arrested and on July 17 another Syrian was apprehended on a forged Dutch passport.
During the past months, in Attica several trafficking groups were busted trying to smuggle immigrants via Athens airport and police officers were accomplices in some of the cases.