Migrants posing as volleyball team blocked by Greek police

Athens: Ten migrants posing as a volleyball team were arrested at Athens' International Airport trying to travel with illegally obtained passports, Greek police said on Sunday.

Police said the migrants, who had entered Greece without legal documents, arrived at the Eleftherios Venizelos airport on Saturday hoping the disguise would get them past controls more easily.

They wore matching outfits, carried matching sports bags and, for good measure, brought two volleyballs.

But border police established that the passports they presented had been illegally obtained, and arrested the group.

According to police sources, they are Syrian nationals who had hoped to travel to Zurich with Ukrainian passports.

Migrants arriving in Greece often make great efforts to slip through closed Greek frontiers to reach other destinations.

According to the latest official numbers, there are more than 26,600 asylum seekers in overcrowded camps on Lesbos, Chios and Samos, the Greek islands at the forefront of the migrant influx.