Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Migrant smugglers mostly Turks, says Europol

  • People continue to use smugglers to help them get into the EU (Photo: Josh Zakary)

Member states are reporting more and more migrant smuggling suspects to the EU police agency Europol.

The spike in reporting, when compared to last year, suggests Turkish nationals ply the migrant smuggling trade more than anyone else.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"What we see is that Turkish suspects smuggle migrants both into the EU and within the EU," an Europol spokesperson told EUobserver earlier this week.

Figures released earlier this month suggest Turks outrank other nationalities as migrant smuggling suspects.

But out of a total 12,000 new suspects reported this year, Europol was able to confirm the nationality of only 3,992.

Of those, it found Turks ranked highest with 423 nationalities, followed by Syrians at 364 and Romanians at 216.

Europol cautioned against drawing any conclusion that would appear to suggest migrant smuggling from Turkey is one the rise.

"The only thing you can assume for certain is that more suspects were reported to Europol by the EU member states," noted the spokesperson.

Asked to respond, the EU commission says the figures refer to people apprehended within EU states and "not suspects involved in migrant smuggling to the EU from third countries".

The EU deal signed with Turkey earlier this year was meant to tackle the smuggling routes into Europe. The commission is set to publish its own assessment of the deal this month.

But Europol also says the nationalities reflect the evolution of migratory routes, as smuggling networks tend to use "local nationals" to facilitate the transport and accommodation of irregular migrants.

Things are only likely to get worse, notes the agency.

It says migratory pressures from Turkey to Greece and Bulgaria into the EU will increase.

More bottlenecks and informal camps in EU states are also likely to emerge.

It says labour exploitation of migrants will increase in both transit and destination countries and smugglers will increasingly use "vessels in poor conditions" that are only able to float for a few hours.

Europol also found that smugglers were adapting to stricter border controls and are now using new routes and methods to evade police and border guards.

"New alternative routes via air, sea and land are increasingly used," it said.

Similar findings were also reported last week by the UK-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a think tank on international development and humanitarian issues.

It said migrants were increasingly using illicit routes into the EU because of tougher border measures and deals with countries like Turkey.

"In 2015, only 35 percent of new asylum applications were from people arriving in Europe by covert means. In 2016, that proportion is projected to increase to approximately 60 percent," said ODI.

EU home to over 5,000 criminal groups

Europol says the figure is more a reflection of an improved intelligence picture rather than an absolute increase in the number of gangs.

Egypt eyes $5-6bn in EU cash under migrant deal

Egypt expects to receive between $5-$6bn [€4.6-€6.5bn] in funding from the EU under a major 'cash for migrant control' pact which is set to be finalised this weekend when EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen travels to Cairo.

Analysis

Election in sight, EU mood music changes on offshoring asylum

Designating a country like Rwanda as 'safe' under EU rules to send an asylum-seeker there requires strict conditions to be met first. But a backdoor clause introduced into EU legislation allows a future commission to strip out those requirements.

Analysis

Election in sight, EU mood music changes on offshoring asylum

Designating a country like Rwanda as 'safe' under EU rules to send an asylum-seeker there requires strict conditions to be met first. But a backdoor clause introduced into EU legislation allows a future commission to strip out those requirements.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us