The European Centre for the Prevention of Migrant Trafficking (ECAMS) was inaugurated present at Europol in The Hague to support EU countries in the fight against human smugglers. Criminal organisations dealing with this activity are besides increasingly active online.
Europol reported that the fresh EU law enforcement cooperation agency department will focus more on investigations based on data from alleged white sources (OSINT), the Internet, the press and social networks, and on financial investigations to combat criminal groups specialising in migrant smuggling.
During the inauguration of the fresh Europol Chief Centre, Catherine De Bolle noted that migrant smugglers are increasingly present on the Internet, where they recruit coworkers, advertise their services, contact through encrypted communicators and lure migrants who pay thousands of euros for risky and frequently life-threatening travel.
– Networks of migrant smugglers are working in an increasingly complex way, both on and off the Internet," De Bolle said. She added that criminal groups are based on multi-layer financial infrastructure that allows them to transfer and hide profits from their activities.
Europol's information shows that smugglers are demanding as much as €20,000 from a individual for transferring migrants from the country of origin to the country of destination. Migrants, for example, pay about EUR 15 000 for smuggling from Iran to Germany, the Netherlands or the UK and about EUR 13 000 for driving to Germany via the Western Balkans.
APW, PAP
