EUROPOL-GREECE/MIGRANTS Major people trafficking ring smashed in Greece

Record ID: 348872

  • Title: EUROPOL-GREECE/MIGRANTS Major people trafficking ring smashed in Greece
  • Date: 17th March 2015
  • Summary: CRETE, GREECE (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ILLEGAL SYRIAN MIGRANTS BEING BROUGHT TO SHORE BY THE COAST GUARD ON CRETE ISLAND VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS ON DECK VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS DISEMBARKING IN LONG LINES AND WALKING ACROSS PORT MIGRANTS ENTERING BUS
  • Embargoed: 1st April 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5GSXH1P7V81CV08OBJZ6T17WY
  • Story Text: Police raids across Greece last week smashed an international people trafficking ring that made $8 million in profit from smuggling Syrian migrants into Europe, and 16 suspects were arrested, officials said on Tuesday (March 17).
    Rob Wainwright, chief of the European police organisation Europol, said Greek authorities backed by the Netherlands-based Europol dismantled the gang in a two-day sweep last week, the first by a new Europol task force dealing with maritime crime.
    He said police staged 20 raids across Greece, arresting 16 suspects - including Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian and Romanian nationals - and seizing 280 passports, dozens of mobile phones, computers, vehicles and 64,000 euros ($68,000) in cash.
    In 2014, more than 220,000 migrants entered Europe, compared to 60,000 a year earlier, and more than 4,000 have died since 2013 attempting the sea crossing, Wainwright said at a media briefing in The Hague.
    He said the gang had smuggled 350 people, mostly Syrians, by boat to the Greek islands of Kos and Rhodes, charging as much as 9,000 euros ($9,500) per person, Europol said.
    The EU's executive Commission is drafting a new immigration policy, due to be adopted in May, that would offer expanded opportunities for legal migration as a way of reducing a wave of illegal migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
    The new Europol task force will bring together leading intelligence experts from European countries most affected by illegal migration.
    Working in The Hague, they will share key data and co-ordinate actions against human traffickers.
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