Some 200 counter terrorism officers will be deployed to the Greek islands within weeks in a bid to thwart a “strategic” level campaign by Islamic State to infiltrate terrorists into Europe, the EU’s top law enforcement officer has said.

The the new task force will be deployed alongside Greek border guards and use techniques developed by British security forces at Heathrow to help spot potential terrorists, Rob Wainwright, the chief of Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, said.

“We have, in the past year and a half, seen a strategic decision by Isil to do that and carryout spectacular attacks of the type we saw in France in Brussels,” he told the Evening Standard.

“There will be further attempts at that kind of activity,” he added.

The new deployment, which Europol originally announced in May, comes amid mounting concern about the terror group’s attempts to exploit the flow of refugees from Syria and other parts of the Middle East.

Last week Europol officials discovered several forged passports in a Greek refugee camp which officers believe were intended for use by Isil operatives.