France dismantles 224 human smuggling networks in 2023

By Esra Taskin

PARIS (AA) – France has dismantled 224 networks smuggling migrants so far this year, the country’s interior minister said Friday.

Citing Europol data, Gerald Darmanin stated that more than 90% of all migrants reaching the EU use the facilitation of a migrant smuggling network.

Saying that human trafficking activities generate €7 billion ($7.4 billion), he noted that the money is later used to finance organized crimes, drugs, and sometimes terrorist activities.

The latest developments on Lampedusa Island, a small Italian island in the Mediterranean where thousands of migrants arrived by small boats recently, remind the importance of a collective fight against these smugglers, he wrote on X.

Saying that his country has uncovered a total of 224 networks so far in 2023, Darmanin added that 19 of them had been operating in English Channel crossings.

Touching on his government's migration bill, the interior minister said they have proposed to double the sentences for smugglers, with 20 years in prison for ringleaders of these networks.