migrant smuggling

• United Kingdom

The British government says it plans to crack down on people bringing migrants across the English Channel. The Prime Minister announced that penalties for smugglers would be "stiffened".

• Bangladesh
• Libya

Libyan authorities have arrested the main suspect in the murder of 30 migrants last year. The migrants, mostly Bangladeshis, were killed last May in the city of Mezdah, south of Libya's capital Tripoli.

• Libya

In recent years terrifying accounts and images of migrants’ suffering in Libya, especially in the country’s detention centres, have spread across the world. The migrants’ journey through Libya is divided up into several stages, with each leg characterized by its own cruel reality. InfoMigrants has spoken with a source in Libya, who is familiar with the mechanisms of the smuggling networks and how migrants are moved inside the country before they are finally put on boats to Europe. In this part of our series we take you through the last leg of their journey to Tripoli, with details we have never shared before.

• Slovenia

In an apparent case of human smuggling, Slovenian police have discovered 13 migrants hidden in a cargo truck. Migrants are regularly discovered crammed into trucks and cars heading through the Balkans en route to western Europe.

• Spain

After reportedly smuggling over 230 migrants to Spain's Canary Islands "without any safety measures," 14 African nationals have been arrested on the Atlantic archipelago. Three migrants reportedly died during the crossings, which took place in January and February.

• Libya

In recent years terrifying accounts and images of migrants’ suffering in Libya, especially in the country’s detention centres, have spread across the world. The migrants’ journey through Libya is divided up into several stages, with each leg characterized by its own cruel reality. InfoMigrants has spoken with a source in Libya, who is familiar with the mechanisms of the smuggling networks and how migrants are moved inside the country before they are finally put on boats to Europe. In this two-part series, we take you through the migrants’ journey, with details we have never shared before.

• Spain

Spanish police in the northern African enclave of Melilla have discovered migrants hiding in waste containers in an attempt to reach the Spanish mainland. One man was found almost dead inside a plastic bag full of toxic ash.

• Italy

Italian authorities arrested three people smugglers on Monday, February 15, as part of an investigation sparked after about 100 migrants were found the previous night, in an area north of the city of Udine.

• Greece
• Italy

Bari police on February 10 arrested two alleged smugglers believed to have illegally taken 32 migrants to the town of Marina di San Gregorio in the Italian region of Puglia. Investigators said they found maps and nautical routes connecting Greece to Italy on the suspects' phones.

• France
• Germany
• Italy

The European Parliament has approved a resolution calling for stronger measures against human trafficking. The situation for victims – many of them migrant women and children – has gotten even worse since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the resolution's sponsors.

• Morocco
• Spain

Spanish police have arrested eight members of a gang they say is engaged in trafficking hashish and transporting migrants from the North African enclave of Melilla to the Spanish mainland.

• Afghanistan
• Italy

Italian authorities have reported more cases of Afghan minors entering the country hidden inside cargo trucks coming from the Balkans. Police said they apprehended youths in two separate cases in Ravenna and in Caserta this week.