In Germany, 19 people, including the leader and four main organisers, were arrested as part of a large-scale operation with German, French, and Belgian police, resulting in the dismantling of one of the biggest migrant smuggling networks across the English Channel, Europol announced on Thursday.
Europol stated that the investigation focused on an Iraqi-Kurdish network that was suspected of smuggling Middle Eastern and East African irregular migrants from France to the UK using low-quality inflatable boats.
The suspects of the investigation, which began at the end of 2022, were responsible for organizing the purchase, storage, and transportation of the inflatable boats, mostly of Chinese origin, that they later used to smuggle migrants from the beaches near the French city of Calais to the UK.
According to Europol, the gang would put an average of 50 migrants in boats designed for a maximum of 10 passengers, charging each migrant between 1,000-3,000 euros ($1,081-$3,242).
During the arrests, the operational task force, Wave, searched 28 locations in Germany and seized 24 inflatable boats, large amounts of nautical equipment, 60 electronic devices, arms, and several thousand euros in cash.
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office mentioned that a total of about 900 German police officers were involved in the operation.
Earlier in the month, the EU’s Frontex border agency reported that irregular immigration to the bloc from Western Africa had increased more than 10 times compared to the previous year in January.
Frontex also stated that it anticipates overall arrivals to grow in 2024 and that completely halting the movement of people is impossible.
($1 = 0.9252 euros)
(Reporting by Piotr Lipinski; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
