people trafficking

Court sentenced six members of a people smuggling network operating in the English Channel to between two and five years in prison.

It appears that human traffickers are stuffing more and more migrants onto the small boats used for crossing the English Channel, with the average number of migrants per boat breaching 50 for the first time on Wednesday.

An Albanian people smuggler nicknamed the “Golden Lion” is said to make a million a week profiting from migrants.

The United Kingdom has seen the highest spike in the number of people allegedly victimised by modern slavery since statistics began, official data has revealed.

Activists need to turn their attention away from attacking old statues and start fighting modern slavery, an ex-police officer has said.

The European Union law enforcement agency Europol has announced that it has identified several trafficking schemes directed toward vulnerable refugee women from Ukraine leading to sexual and labour exploitation. The police agency was able to identify various trafficking schemes online,

A German-led European police taskforce claims to have arrested eight “highly dangerous” people smugglers and 127 others who operated a major migrant smuggling network that allegedly helped 10,000 enter Europe illegally. The European Union police agency Europol announced the results

The United Kingdom National Crime Agency (NCA) has claimed to have arrested a 29-year-old people smuggler they say has been a major figure in supplying boats to migrants crossing the English Channel illegally. The NCA say that they arrested 29-year-0ld

European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson has wanred that refugee children fleeing the conflict in Ukraine could fall victim to traffickers disguised as helpers at border areas.

Three Iraqi-Kurdish people-smugglers have been sentenced by a French court to between two and a half and five years for their roles in a large network operating in the English Channel.

Five suspects in a migrant smuggling ring have been charged for helping smuggle migrants around the Melilla city wall by sea. 

A Spanish court has sentenced a pair of African national people traffickers to nine years in prison over the deaths of nine migrants.

Spanish authorities have arrested 63 people accused of operating a human trafficking ring, importing women from China to two cities in Spain.

A 49-year-old French national has been sentenced to four years in prison for driving migrants across the border from Spain into France and even trying to ram his vehicle into officers at the time of his arrest. The Bayonne Criminal

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office has demanded a sentence of at least 15 years for alleged people-trafficker Vo Van Hong, who is accused of being connected to the deaths of 39 people in a truck in southern England in 2019.

The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (SUPO) has confirmed reports that people-smugglers are now advertising crossings from Russia to Finland to migrants, as many abandon attempts to enter the European Union from Belarus in the face of strong border enforcement by Poland and the Baltic States.

The British government is deporting a convicted people-trafficker from Albania for the third time in under two years, highlighting how ineffective its border control regime is even on those rare occasions when it actually removes people from the country.

A French court has charged an Algerian with manslaughter after a 27-year-old Eritrean died trying to illegally cross the English Channel last week.

Greek police arrested three members of a people-trafficking ring on suspicion of supplying migrants with fake coronavirus documents intended to allow them to fly to other European countries.

The authorities in Lithuania — a country of 2.8 million people where migration is virtually unprecedented — are being overwhelmed by African and Middle Eastern migrants entering via Belarus.

Two Pakistani nationals transporting a group of illegal immigrants were arrested by Greek police this week after a car chase in Thessaloniki.

In the first six months of this year, at least 1,146 people have drowned in the Mediterranean as people smugglers resume operations to help migrants illegally cross the sea to Europe.

Three members of a people trafficking ring that shipped hundreds of Polish migrants to the UK and forced them into slavery have been convicted.

Swedish police have arrested a man in his 40s on suspicion of being paid to smuggle a child into the country.

A Turkish lorry driver has been charged, convicted, and imprisoned for trying to smuggle illegal migrants out of the United Kingdom. 

Austrian police have arrested three Romanian nationals after busting a sex trafficking gang that allegedly lured at least 20 women, mainly from Moldova, to Austria and forced them into prostitution.

Italian media have accused NGOs of exploiting photographs of dead children to increase public support for migrant taxi operations in the Mediterranean Sea.

French populist party leader Marine Le Pen denounced the activities of migrant taxi NGOs, linking them to people trafficking and “modern slavery”.

A 43-year-old Egyptian working as a painter has been arrested for spying on Greek military bases. He is also accused of smuggling “VIP migrants” from Syria.

The Greek coastguard rescued 17 illegal migrants after people traffickers had abandoned them aboard a stolen boat that had been damaged.

Members of Albanian drug gangs are reportedly claiming to be victims of modern slavery to avoid serving jail time in Britain, as they continue their push to corner the marijuana black market. Albanian “gardeners” are being brought into the country

A Belgian advocate-general has called for the acquittal of one journalist in a court of appeals and the conviction of another who is said to have been involved in aiding the trafficking of illegal migrants.

People traffickers in the Mediterranean sea are allegedly using pregnant women as “weapons” to encourage public sympathy for mass migration.

A record number of human trafficking victims sought help from a Finland Centre tackling the issue in 2020.

Hungarian police say they have discovered at least 16 tunnels used by people traffickers to smuggle migrants across the border from neighbouring Serbia.

Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum Notis Mitarakis has claimed that people traffickers have lost as much as €100 million due to the reduction in migrants flowing into Greece.