Portuguese police today raided a refugee support center run by the municipality of Setubal near Lisbon following allegations that Russian officials were collecting personal data of dozens of newly arrived Ukrainians who had fled their homeland after the Russian invasion.
Police said in a statement that they had searched the support center, the municipal building and the Yedinstvo immigrant association from Eastern Europe, of which the Russian couple were members. Police seized documents as part of an investigation into suspected crimes of data misuse and unauthorized access.
The Expresso newspaper reported on April 29 that a Russian couple allegedly linked to the Kremlin, Igor Kassin and his wife Julia, had photocopied personal documents of the refugees and questioned them about the whereabouts of their family members in Ukraine. something that frightened and upset many refugees.
Expresso stressed that Portugal’s security service has been closely monitoring Cassin’s activities since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The immigrants’ association and the couple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The city council, which is controlled by the Communist Party of Portugal (PCP), said the man was “working” with the Setubal refugee center, where his wife also worked, also from Russia.
The PCP has been criticized for failing to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The couple has dual citizenship and the municipality said Igor Cassin had worked with the mayor’s office and other local government bodies for many years.
Opposition parties have stated they will not run in the by-elections on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.
Martins’s office said it had never been informed “by any official body of suspicious acts or conduct” of the association, which has been working with the municipality since 2005.
Speaking in Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ana Katarina Mendes said the case “must be fully investigated” and that the government “will not allow those who come here to be treated with dignity and respect”.
Portugal has welcomed almost 36,000 Ukrainian refugees since the Russian invasion on February 24.
This is not the first time Portugal has come under fire for the way it handles sensitive data. Earlier this year, the Lisbon mayor’s office was fined 1.2m euros for leaking personal details of Russian protesters to the country’s embassy.
SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
Source: Capital
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