France: smuggling networks, "criminal organizations" with international ramifications
Migrants using life jackets attempt to cross the Channel Canal from France on March 15, 2022. © Sameer al-Doumy / AFP
Text by: Romain Philips Follow
4 mins
The latest arrests carried out after lengthy investigations reveal that the smuggling networks that operate in Europe are “structured criminal organisations” that operate in several countries of the European Union.
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It is “
the largest international operation ever carried out against small boat smugglers
”, welcomed Eurojust, the European Union agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters,
announcing the dismantling,
Wednesday July 6, of a network of smugglers who operated around the English Channel
.
A dragnet which could have taken place thanks to a long investigation started in France in November 2021, a few days after
the terrible shipwreck which claimed the lives of 27 people
.
The investigations revealed a “
vast structured criminal organization, of high level, with a well-established financial system, international ramifications and sprawling logistics allowing it to have control over the passage of migrants by crossing the Channel
”, according to Carole Etienne, prosecutor of the Court of Lille.
The operation carried out simultaneously in five states (France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) showed that the network was led by Iraqi Kurds and acted in many countries.
39 people were arrested and “
1,200 life jackets, nearly 150 boats and 50 motors, several thousand euros in cash as well as firearms and drugs were seized
”.
For the average sum of 2,500 to 3,000 euros per person, these men, who organized a majority of the Channel crossings, organized hundreds of trips to smuggle up to 10,000 migrants over the course of 12 to 18 months.
Sometimes, “
up to 15 boats were launched almost simultaneously, half of which managed to cross the United Kingdom
”, adds the agency.
A technique regularly used to overwork the authorities, unable to intervene with so many boats simultaneously.
According to French judicial sources, the network heads are based in Iraq, Afghanistan and Eritrea.
And to carry out their operations, they obtain boats in China, which are then sent to Germany, a country that has become a benchmark for networks repelled by supply difficulties in France, or in the Netherlands, by Turkey.
From there, the equipment is transported by subcontracted intermediaries responsible for transporting the boats to the French coast.
An aerial image of an abandoned boat used by migrants to cross the English Channel from France on September 14, 2020 in Deal, on the southeast coast of England AFP
“
Recruitment is done by intermediaries”
Once the makeshift boats have been hidden on the northwest coast of France, the networks operate different strategies to bring in customers.
Some opt for social networks, as demonstrated
by a survey by Radio France
, where they sometimes even offer journeys from the point of departure to the arrival for astronomical sums.
Also, the organizations bring migrants from other countries to France.
Those arrested in Germany in particular "
are suspected of having participated in the clandestine entry of foreigners in an organized gang
", according to a joint press release from the federal and Osnabrück police and the public prosecutor's office of this city.
Others still outsource this operation.
A way to stay in the shadows and make it even more difficult for the authorities to try to trace the tracks.
“
Recruitment is done by intermediaries, small hands.
Often, these are people to whom we offer a free place in a boat if it brings back 10
customers
", explains William Feuillard, coordinator at the Auberge des migrants, an association which has been working with exiles for more than 10 years in the region.
He congratulates the authorities for this operation, but remembers one thing: “
The networks of smugglers are only the tip of the iceberg.
No matter how much we cut off a head, there are two that will grow back behind
”.
“Border bunkering”
A migrant walks along the fence installed by the authorities to protect the port from the intrusion of migrants trying to reach Britain, north of the city of Calais.
AFP PHOTO PHILIPPE HUGUEN
Over the years, members of the organization have seen the use of smugglers exploded, a consequence of "
the bunkering of the border
", according to Mr. Feuillard.
As controls are tightened by the English and French authorities, crossings by truck or car have become almost impossible, giving way to crossings by sea. A passage around which “
smugglers have largely developed
” .
And since then, on the strength of their experience, they have become industrialized.
And indeed, these last two years have been records in terms of crossings.
In 2021, 52,000 people tried to reach the United Kingdom by sea, a record.
The year 2022 promises to be just as intense.
Between January and June,
“20,132 candidates (+68% compared to the same period in 2021) were identified”
, according to the French Ministry of the Interior.
On Wednesday July 16 alone,
166 people were rescued
in the waves off the French coast.
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