Police in five European countries took part in an operation on Tuesday aimed at dismantling a large migrant-smuggling network that organised crossings of at least 10,000 migrants in the English Channel, arresting dozens of people.
Police in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium took part in the operation which saw 18 people arrested in Germany, another five arrested in the Netherlands, and 52 people in total across all five countries.
The logistical headquarters of the network was based in the German city of Osnabrück and the Osnabrück Public Prosecutor’s Office, the German Federal Police, and the Osnabrück Police released a statement on Wednesday regarding the operation, stating they had seized 119 inflatable boats, 33 boat engines, 966 life jackets, 64 mobile phones and tablets, 27,000 euros (£23,044/$27,504) in cash, and several weapons, broadcaster NDR reports.
The 18 people arrested by German police are said to be between the ages of 22 and 54 and most of the arrests took place in an area around the city of Bremen.
According to investigators, the network operated from both the French and Belgian coasts using boats to ferry migrants across the English Channel to the United Kingdom. It is believed to be run by Kurdish-Iraqis.
The network transported around 10,000 migrants across the Channel over a period of a year and a half.
Investigators also stated that the network managed to procure boats, engines, and other supplies from Germany and transported the materials to the French and Belgian coasts. At least 12 transports of materials were recorded by police from warehouses in Hanover and Bielefeld.
Boris Pistorius, Interior Minister of the Lower Saxony region, commented on the raids.
“The criminal business model of making money illegally from the suffering and hardship of people is vile and unscrupulous,” he said, adding: “In their hopeless situation, these people often see no other way out than to put themselves in the hands of criminal gangs for a lot of money and often risk their lives in the process.”
The arrests are just the latest of people-smugglers connected to English Chanel crossings, with the British claiming in May to have arrested a major smuggler who had been supplying boats for illegal crossings.
29-year-0ld Iranian national Hewa Rahimpur is said to have bought boats from Turkey which were then shipped to Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, where they were then transported to the French coast by members of a people-smuggling network.
Punishments for people-smuggling in Britain are fairly weak, however, and it is unclear whether they are having a meaningful deterrent effect.
Indeed, illegal migrant landings in the United Kingdom have surged this year, with the month of June alone seeing 3,136 illegal migrants in 76 boats arrive on English shores.
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