People smugglers

The Border Guard in Finland revealed a major operation against a network suspected of aiding illegal migration by Middle Eastern migrants.

A French immigration investigator has claimed that some 100 people-smuggling gangs are running illegal migrant routes across the English Channel to Britain.

People-smuggling gangs in France are offering cut-rate Christmas prices to facilitate illegal boat migrants making the journey across the English Channel for as little as £300.

Police arrested three Pakistani migrants in Thessaloniki, Greece, after they had allegedly held eight people hostage, ransoming their freedom.

A Greek newspaper has blamed NGOs for a surge of arrivals of Africans, mainly from Somalia, claiming that between 2,000 and 2,500 migrants are currently in Turkey being helped to enter Greece illegally.

ROME (AP) — Italian police on Saturday arrested 19 suspects, dismantling what authorities say was a criminal organization that moved migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan to Italy and then into northern Europe.

French police have arrested what is being characterised as a major people-smuggling operation behind many of the small rubber boats that have carried illegal migrants across the English Channel to the UK.

An Afghan illegal migrant has been charged with child endangerment offences after getting a 6-year-old killed by bringing him on a dangerous dinghy trip to Greece. 

A Romanian trucker was sentenced to 31 months in prison on Monday for attempting to smuggle a group of migrants out of the United Kingdom earlier this year. The National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Marius Halmaghe in Kent on October

A 37-year-old Iranian man has been arrested and charged with manslaughter after a family of five drowned while trying to cross the English Channel from France.

People smuggling gangs are paying off French fishing boats to smuggle migrants halfway across the English Channel in order to avoid detection from UK Border Force drones, a report has claimed. The French boats reportedly sit “still” in the Channel

The Italian Guardia di Finanza opened fire next to a Tunisian fishing vessel suspected of aiding illegal migration after the boat rammed one of the Italian ships.

Greece’s coast guard said Wednesday it was continuing a broad search and rescue operation after a yacht smuggling migrants partially sank.

A senior Tory parliamentarian has called for illegal migrants to be quarantined on army bases and disused cruise ships amid claims they are flouting anti-coronavirus rules.

A Syrian father and son have been convicted by a German court for smuggling a teen girl into Germany and forcing her to serve as a slave, with the son raping her at least four times.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) – Police in Slovenia said Monday they stopped a van carrying 43 migrants who entered the country illegally.

Since the start of the year, over 4,000 illegal boat migrants have successfully reached British shores from France. Reports suggest that a clandestine “Boat Mafia” is operating in Brussels to establish another beachhead for the people-smuggling trade.

The Royal Navy will be needed to perform returns of illegal boat migrants to France in the English Channel, said the union representing the UK Border Force.

The UK has arrested 11 people suspected of being involved in a people-smuggling gang, which is believed to have facilitated illegal boat migrants crossing the English Channel from France, the Home Office has revealed. Police in Britain raided 12 properties

The German Joint Analysis and Strategy Centre for Illegal Migration (Gasim) has claimed that people smugglers in North Africa are actively tracking migrant transport NGO vessels and sending migrants to them.

Armed Albanian people-smuggling gangs are running a new ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in Calais, France, that is packed with over 1,000 people who buy kayaks and surfboards to attempt to cross the English Channel.

An Italian court has sentenced three foreign people-smugglers to 20 years each after they were found guilty of torturing migrants who were attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

The former head of UK Border Force has called illegal boat migration from across the English Channel a “major threat” to Britain’s border security and has called for the British government to adopt a strict Australia-style approach and return illegal aliens to France.

The European Union police agency Europol has warned that people-smuggling activities have surged as member-states soften lockdown measures to contain the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.

Three Turkish men have been sentenced for the killing of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose drowning was the catalyst for the 2015-16 migrant crisis. 

MADRID (AP) – Spanish police have arrested 89 people suspected of belonging to a crime ring that smuggled both migrants and hashish from North Africa to mainland Spain.

Pope Francis condemned human trafficking as a “true plague” Sunday, calling for an international effort to eradicate it.

French and Dutch authorities have arrested 23 people in connection with a people-smuggling network that is said to have helped around 10,000 Kurds illegally enter the UK.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) – Police in North Macedonia found 36 migrants who are believed to have entered the country illegally from Greece packed in a truck during a routine check. The driver was arrested.

Police in several European countries have arrested dozens of suspected Nigerian mafia members as the crime organisation spreads across Italy and elsewhere.