Police carried out dawn raids in several cities in Germany and France in an internationally coordinated operation to break up an alleged network smuggling migrants into the UK in small boats.
After months of intelligence gathering and working with Europol, French security services and British police, Wednesday's raids revealed the gang had procured a small boat and discovered migrants they wanted to take from France across the German border to the UK. The attacks were concentrated in cities in western Germany, where it is believed that the attacks were carried out. English channel.
The Iraqi Kurdish network has revealed that some Kurds, believed to be living in asylum seeker shelters in western North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), have been illegally transported to France and the UK from the Middle East and East Africa. He is accused of smuggling immigrants. A small rubber boat was used,” the German Federal Police said in a statement.
More than 500 police officers took part in the operation, which ranged from asylum seeker shelters to private homes and warehouses in cities such as Essen, Bochum and Gelsenkirchen in NRW and the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, and 10 international arrest warrants were issued. was related to. Like other people in France. German police said the arrest warrant was issued by a court in the French city of Lille.
Of particular interest was an asylum seeker shelter in Essen, which was besieged by armed police early Wednesday morning, according to the Bild tabloid. There were also reporters at the scene.
Members of Germany's anti-terrorist special forces, GSG 9, led the attack, supported by more than 20 French and British investigators and officials from the European Union's law enforcement agency Europol. British and French police were reportedly on site during the operation in Germany.
In February, 19 people were arrested in a raid targeting another Iraqi Kurdish smuggling network following an investigation by Belgian, French and German authorities. Investigators say new smuggling organizations are constantly emerging.
One investigator told German media that human smuggling operations are often more lucrative than drug trafficking.
“More money can be made in human smuggling than in the international drug trade. Individual Syrians pay up to 10,000 euros for smuggling. A fully loaded dinghy can quickly cost hundreds of thousands of euros. Migrants' lives don't matter to criminals,” he said.
The suspects in the February raid, all based in Germany, had bought rubber boats to smuggle migrants into Britain from the coast near the French port city of Calais.
The smuggling of migrants into the UK via France by small boats has increased since 2019. According to Europol, an estimated 30,000 migrants arrived in the UK on 600 boats last year, with just under 8,000 recorded human smuggling incidents.
This represents an increase of more than 60% compared to 2022 and marks the highest level of smuggling since the height of the refugee crisis in 2016. German federal police have announced that they have launched an investigation into 4,400 suspected smugglers.
Germany is increasingly in the spotlight over small vessel smuggling. recent Investigation by BBC Germany has uncovered significant links to smuggling organizations trying to collect migrants across the Channel.
German politicians are under intense pressure to reduce the level of so-called illegal immigration into the country, one of the key issues ahead of snap elections due to be held in February, and the far-left・This is a hot topic of contention for far-right groups. right.
The recent escalation in the Syrian conflict has raised concerns that smugglers will once again exploit more Syrians who are forced to seek refuge in safe places, further increasing migration levels.
