Dutch prosecutors ask maritime sector to be alert to human smuggling
2024 is the deadliest year for migrants crossing the English Channel. The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service (OM) prosecutes the criminal networks behind those crossings. This week, the OM is at METSTRADE in Amsterdam, together with the Royal Marechaussee and the British National Crime Agency. At the largest trade fair in the world for the recreational maritime sector, they aim to raise awareness of human smuggling. Because smugglers who buy small boats and outboard motors can be recognised by the sector at an early stage.
The sailing route across the Channel is not only popular with regular shipping. Migrants who want to travel from the European mainland to Great Britain frequently use the route. And although controls have been tightened in recent years, this does not stop criminal smuggling organisations. Smugglers take more risks and send overcrowded and poor-quality inflatable boats out to sea. According to the UN, a record number of people died during the crossing this year.
Big business
The smuggling industry has become big business for criminal organisations. The purchase of nautical goods in relation to the price a migrant pays for the crossing (between 3000-6000 euros) ensures large profits. The smugglers themselves keep their distance and facilitate the journey largely by telephone. Although the crossing is made from Belgium or France, the Netherlands plays an important role.
Petra Hoekstra, National Public Prosecutor for Human Smuggling and Migration Crime:
“We see that the Netherlands is used by criminal networks in the preparatory acts of human smuggling. Think of the purchase, storage and transport of nautical goods, such as life jackets, rubber boats, outboard motors and jerry cans with fuel. These goods are mainly purchased in Turkey. From our country or Germany they are then driven to the French coast, where migrants are ready to board.”
Ears and eyes of the maritime sector
It is the nautical goods that can lead the investigative authorities to the criminals behind this smuggling industry at an early stage. The Netherlands works closely with our neighbouring countries and the UK in this regard. Last week, a suspected major trader in smuggling boats was arrested at Schiphol Amsterdam airport. In these types of investigations, the ears and eyes of the maritime sector are of great importance:
“We are asking the maritime sector to help us catch the criminals. We want traders in nautical goods to be aware that these can be used in high-risk human trafficking. We are asking them to be alert to indicators of human trafficking and to report suspicious situations, which fortunately they already do regularly. We are also appealing to the responsibility that the sector as a whole bears. As a seller, or as a lessor of a warehouse, for example, you must know who you are doing business with.”
The Royal Marechaussee, which conducts the Dutch investigations into smuggling networks under the supervision of the National Public Prosecution Service, asks that suspicious situations that could indicate human trafficking always be reported via telephone number 0800-1814 or from abroad 0031-(0)889581814.