A wooden boat that carried 80 refugees during their flight from Libya to Europe can be seen at the exhibition at the state museum in Hanover, Germany, 6 April 2017. Peter Steffen/Press Association. All rights reserved.Migrant smuggling has emerged as one of the most profitable and widespread criminal activities for organised crime in the EU. The profits generated reach billions of euros every year and the demand for facilitation services remains high. Migrant smuggling is now a large, profitable and sophisticated criminal market; almost all irregular migrants entering the EU resort to paid facilitation services at some point of their journey.
Who are the smugglers?
Migrant smuggling to the EU is organised and controlled by sophisticated criminal groups displaying unprecedented levels of organisation and coordination. Present all along the migratory routes, smugglers act in networks; this allows them to offer tailored services at the various steps of the process, from transport and accommodation in origin and transit countries to assistance for the legalisation of the stay once the final destination has been reached.
The networks generally bring together various EU and non-EU nationalities, making migrant smuggling a truly multi-national business. Smugglers from over 122 nationalities have so far been identified.[1] The groups are often poly-criminal, also engaging in other criminal activities such as trafficking in human beings, drug trafficking, fraud or organised property crime.
