Friday

29th Mar 2024

Exclusive

Revealed: EU plan to make 1,400 people-smuggling arrests in 2022

  • An operation named Reflect 2022 and headed by Frontex aims to make 1,000 apprehensions and or arrests (Photo: European Union, 2019)
Listen to article

A leaked internal document has revealed the detail of dozens of operational plans to crack down on migrant smugglers next year, including a target to make over 1,400 arrests - mostly under the aegis of the EU's border agency Frontex.

The 59-page internal EU document, dated 13 November, offers a snapshot of 30 different plans set to be launched.

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

Some are led by individual member states, others by EU agencies like Frontex and police agency Europol.

The plans come at a time when humanitarian volunteers face increasing risk of possible prison sentences and fines for helping migrants. It also comes amid revelations of Greek intelligence services monitoring a journalist reporting on refugees.

Some of the plans come with so-called key annual performance indicators, including things like number of arrests, seized fraudulent documents, intelligence gathering reports, and launched investigations.

It feeds into a wider push to prevent people seeking protection from entering the EU, as member states remain deadlocked in their efforts to overhaul the EU's internal asylum rules and comes under a security driven initiative by EU member states known as Empact.

Its primary strategic goal is to create a "criminal intelligence picture", followed by everything from money-laundering to assistance to victims.

The intelligence picture spans criminal networks but also vaguely termed phrases like "key parallel facilitators."

It includes yet-to-be-adopted rules enabling Frontex "to support operational activities by means of identifying suspects in cross-border crime, namely migrant smuggling (and others)."

It also involves Europol working with countries where it has operational and strategic agreements, including the Balkans but also China, Russia, and Turkey.

Austria, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and non-EU state UK are also all spearheading individual operations, along with support from other countries.

Austria is tasked to arrest 200 "smuggler-facilitators" in its Western Balkan operation.

Greece wants to establish whether criminal acts "may be committed in the future", and will narrow in on migration logistical hubs such as transportation and accommodation.

It plans to make at least five arrests next year.

Germany is leading three operations spanning the Western Balkans, document forgery detection, and intelligence gathering on visa fraud.

It wants to make at least 200 arrests.

Italy wants to break apart organised crime groups along the 'Central Mediterranean Route' by improving "real-time information exchange" and by increasing collaboration with Libya and Tunisia. Number of arrests: six.

France is leading four operations involving the 'dark web', document fraud, onward internal movements by migrants, and inflatable boats crossing the English Channel.

Spain has two operations to stem migratory pressure on the Western Mediterranean route and cut smuggling air routes from Africa, Asia, and South America. Number of arrests: 30.

Europol has three operations dealing with enhancing the intelligence picture of migratory smuggling routes, leading to some 100 "intelligence products".

Poland will work on disrupting smuggling from Belarus, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine.

Portugal will crack down on bogus marriages in a so-called 'Operation Bride' and hopes to identify or disrupt at least five organised crime groups.

Frontex has the lead on eight operations, dealing with illegal border crossings, surveillance in the Balkans, border checks, document fraud, training, intelligence collection at external borders, and awareness raising.

The operations include apprehending at least 50 "suspected facilitators" and making some 1,000 arrests.

Meanwhile, the UK along with Germany will be working on disrupting supply chains for small boats and engines used by migrants to cross the English Channel.

EU top court slams Poland and Hungary again

In a joint letter, five European Parliament groups - from centre-right to far-left - called on EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to defend EU law and take all necessary measures.

People helping migrants 'increasingly persecuted in EU'

A new report has found a dramatic increase in the number of criminal and administrative cases against people who help migrants. The report comes as a number of sea-rescue activists face up to 25 years in prison in Greece.

Syria refugees prefer Libya sea-crossing to 'dangerous' Greece

A group of Syrians fleeing their country say that Greece has become too dangerous and expensive as an option to enter the EU, in order to claim asylum. They have instead opted for Libya and the highly-risky Mediterranean sea-crossing.

EU creates hub to stop arms-smuggling out of Ukraine

EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson announced a hub in Moldova to battle organized crime, particularly arms smuggling from war-torn Ukraine. The hub will be a "one-stop-shop" allowing the EU's border guard agency Frontex to support local border agencies.

Investigation

How migrants risk becoming drug addicts along Balkan route

Psychotropic drug abuse is one of the many dangers migrants face along the Balkan route. In overcrowded camps, doctors prescribe tranquilisers to calm people down. And black market circuits and pharmacies selling drugs without prescription contribute to the issue.

Investigation

How migrants risk becoming drug addicts along Balkan route

Psychotropic drug abuse is one of the many dangers migrants face along the Balkan route. In overcrowded camps, doctors prescribe tranquilisers to calm people down. And black market circuits and pharmacies selling drugs without prescription contribute to the issue.

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. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

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?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us