An international police crackdown is underway against people smugglers transporting migrants to the United Kingdom via France, including raids in West Germany, German police said on Wednesday.
A police spokeswoman in Dusseldorf said the smugglers were responsible for transporting migrants from the Middle East and North Africa in inflatable boats across the English Channel.
More than 500 police officers had been involved in the raids in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone since early morning, the spokeswoman said, with further operations in the south in Baden-Württemberg.
The investigations were led by French authorities, but Wednesday’s police action was coordinated at European level.
Officials from the European Union’s law enforcement and criminal justice agencies – known as Europol and Eurojust respectively – took part in the raids, as well as at least twenty French investigators.
German police have been asked to execute more than 10 European arrest warrants, the spokeswoman added. Police described the human smugglers involved as an Iraqi Kurdish group.
Migrants have been crossing the English Channel illegally in small boats from France in increasing numbers in recent years.
Dozens of migrants have died as a result of accidents on the overcrowded rubber boats, with French newspaper Le Parisien reporting at least 72 deaths at the crossings this year.
Britain has been trying for years to stem the flow of migrants with French help.
A federal police vehicle stands in front of a refugee reception center in Essen, where a police operation was carried out this morning in connection with an international raid against a smuggling network. An international police operation against a smuggling network is underway in North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg. Christoph Reichwein/dpa
