BRUSSELS - Refugees and asylum seekers in Greece may be paying up to €5,000 to get smuggled into Italy and elsewhere in Europe.
Children are left behind with the smugglers who use them as “guarantees” or “deposits” to ensure future payment by desperate parents.
Once the parents obtain asylum, in say Sweden or the Netherlands, the smugglers then escort the children to Athens-based NGOs who are then able to reunite them.
