One of the “most important” smuggler networks organizing boat crossings of the Channel was dismantled on Wednesday in a vast international operation, Europol announced on Thursday. Nineteen people were arrested in Germany in this raid which involved the French, Belgian and German authorities, coordinated by Europol and Eurojust, the European police agency said in a press release.
“Between 1,000 and 3,000 euros per migrant for a place on board the dangerous ship”
The investigation, which lasted a year and a half, “focused on an Iraqi-Kurdish network suspected of smuggling irregular migrants from the Middle East and East Africa from France to the United Kingdom. United,” Europol said. He did this using “poor quality inflatable boats”, neither suitable nor safe for transporting more than 10 people, according to the agency.
“However, on average, smugglers place around fifty migrants in one of these boats. In total, investigators have gathered evidence linking at least 55 departures facilitated solely by this network of smugglers,” the agency said. “The suspects… organized the purchase, storage and transport of inflatable boats with a view to their later use to smuggle migrants from the beaches near the French town of Calais to the United Kingdom” , specified Europol.
They received “between 1,000 and 3,000 euros per migrant for a place on board the dangerous ship”. German authorities deployed more than 650 agents during this day of action during which 28 locations were searched in Germany, 19 houses and nine storage locations, Europol said. Migrant smuggling activities via small boats “have steadily increased since 2019, before becoming the most commonly used modus operandi for the smuggling of migrants from the EU to the UK in 2021, exceeding illicit traffic by truck”, according to Europol. Migrant smuggling is “still a deadly threat,” the agency said.