Police say murdered Afghan ‘rented out’ compatriots as farm hands
Police investigating the murder of an Afghan man on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos said on Tuesday that the victim was known for exploiting fellow Afghans by “renting” them out to local farmers.
The 28-year-old victim was stabbed multiple times in his home on Sunday in the village of Pamfyla, which is located some 4 kilometers from the migrant and refugee camp of Moria. He was known in the area for finding accommodation and work for fellow Afghans looking to leave the cramped camp.
Having legal status in Greece, he would sublet houses and apartments to asylum seekers and pocket 15 of the 25 euros he arranged for them to get paid a day for collecting olives. Authorities estimate he had at least 30 Afghans in his employ staying at properties rented under his name.
“He'd hang around coffee shops all day, making calls on two or three different cell phones. He never worked himself. That was his job,” one resident of Pamfyla was quoted by the ANA-MPA news agency as saying.
Investigators have arrested four Afghan men aged 18 to 29 and are looking for another two in connection with the attack on the 28-year-old, which is thought to have been prompted by economic differences. Another two people who were living in the same house as the victim were injured in the altercation.
The victim, meanwhile, had recently been released from prison after serving part of a sentence for smuggling migrants from Turkey into Greece in the summer of 2015.
