International crime event
The immigrant crisis in Europe is interconnected with the international smuggling of people. The crisis in the Middle East has resulted in various migrants taking a perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. The smuggling is facilitating the illegal migration.
The European Union has decided to stop the international crime on people-traffickers in the Mediterranean. BBC (2015) has reported of involvement of various member states in the operation. The focus is on the shores of the union, which receive a vast number of immigrants daily. Prior to the event of catching part of the people who were actively smuggling people the statistics is concerned. Around 3.000 deaths of migrants were recorded in the sea in 2014 and at first three months in 2015 another 1.000. Frontex is monitoring several European Union and non-European Union ports and large vessels which could be used for smuggling. The maritime patrols have been without serious supervision with the end of the operation in Italy Mare Nostrum. There have been various major roads of immigrants recorded on which monitoring of the Europol joint operation is focusing (BBC, 2015).
On the second December 2015 the Pan-European operation dismantled migrants smuggling network. There was various law enforcement included from different countries: Austria, Greece, Sweden and United Kingdom. The international case was coordinated through Greece and targeted the criminal groups that were suspected of smuggling immigrants into Europe. The operation resulted in 23 suspected smugglers arrested from which 7 was arrested in Austria, 13 in Greece, 2 in Sweden and 1 in the United Kingdom. They were predominantly of Greek and Syrian origin and Palestinians. The operation was coordinated through the Netherlands Haag. They have been smuggling immigrants via the Balkan road from Turkey to Greece and further into the European Union through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, and Germany and further to the north. They provided assistance from transport, supply of travel documents to providing shelter. They were using social media and online media for communicating. The Europol believes that they have smuggled around 100 migrants per day since the 2013 that the immigration crisis began. The estimation of their earnings is at 10 million euros (Europol, 2015).
The Joint Operation Team (JOT) Mare was launched in order to combat migration in the Mediterranean. The aim is to demise the actions of the organized criminal groups who are contributing to the journeys of migrants by ships or boats across the Mediterranean Sea in order to seek peace and come to the European Union. The operation was launched on the 15 March 2015 and has been coordinated through various different countries. Various tragedies have happened since the uprisings in the Arab world and civil war in Syria and Afghanistan, which greatly affect the increase rate of immigrants in Europe. The operation includes the Europol’s intelligence and European member’s states’ capabilities to fight the international organized crimes. The actions involve the cooperation and sharing of the intelligence. In the operation the European Union members are involved along with the Europol, Interpol and Frontex (Europol, 2015a).
The Guardian (Khomami, 2015) as various other Europeans and international journals and newspaper reported on the arrest done on the people smuggling immigrants. The United Kingdom arrested a Palestinian national based on the warrant because of smuggling more than 100 migrant a day, mostly from Syria into Western Europe in the last 16 months. The amount shared for the one person to be smuggled has been estimated at £1,000. The criminal group was cathected based on the international cooperation. The criminal gang has been making huge profits on account of immigrants that seek peace and opportunity (Khomami, 2015).
People smuggling and in this case the smuggling of immigrants via the Mediterranean has resulted in vast numbers of people drowned and death and should be therefore prevented also in the future, but unfortunately taking care of issues only on the European grounds will not stop the basic reasons from immigrants coming and wanting to come to the European Union.
BBC. 2015. EU Steps up War on People-Traffickers in Mediterranean. Retrieved http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31923143
Europol. 2015. Huge Pan-European Operation Dismantles Migrant Smuggling Network. Retrieved https://www.europol.europa.eu/content/huge-pan-european-operation- dismantles-migrant-smuggling-network
Europol. 2015a. Joint Operation Team Launched to Combat Irregular Migration in the Mediterranean. Retrieved https://www.europol.europa.eu/content/joint-operational- team-launched-combat-irregular-migration-mediterranean
