migrant smuggling

• Greece
• Belarus
• Lithuania

The Iraqi government says it will probe the smuggling of migrants after more than 1,500 mainly Iraqi nationals have crossed into Lithuania from Belarus over the past two months. Moreover, the Greek government plans to provide Lithuania with expertise and technical support.

• Cyprus

Authorities at a British military base on Cyprus have hired additional officers and procured detection equipment to better thwart irregular immigration. The move comes as more migrants have continued to arrive from the Turkish-administered northern part of the island.

• Serbia

Serbian police announced on Sunday that they had discovered an "illegal migrant camp" on the border with Hungary and Romania. The police said that they had detained "suspected people smugglers" at the camp.

• Italy

Italian authorities have arrested a Serbian citizen accused of taking two migrants to Italy illegally, including a 15-year-old. Sources said the migrants were hidden inside the refrigerated part of a truck driven by the suspect that had left from a port in Greece.

• Slovenia
• Pakistan
• Bangladesh

Police and border forces from North Macedonia and Slovenia conducted two operations on Friday in which they found a total of 82 migrants hidden in various vehicles.

• Italy

The Italian authorities on Friday detained eight alleged migrant smugglers during an operation off the country's southern Calabria region coast on the "mother ship" of a boat intercepted Thursday with 37 migrants onboard. Some 35 of the migrants were unaccompanied migrants.

• France
• United Kingdom

The numbers of migrants attempting to or succeeding in crossing the Channel between Europe and the UK continue to rise. After a spell of good weather, more than 600 people have been intercepted by UK Border Forces in the last few days.

• Slovakia
• Germany

Police have carried out raids across Germany, as well as in Slovakia, in an operation against people smuggling gangs. Thay made two arrrests and found dozens of individuals at properties in several German states.

• Belgium

Belgium authorities have brought 49 mostly Vietnamese migrants to shore after their boat ran into difficulties, according to an official. They were trying to reach the UK and it is thought they set off from France.

• Somalia
• Turkey
• Greece

A Somali asylum seeker has been sentenced to 146 years in prison for human smuggling by a Greek court, according to the European Council on Refugees and Exiles. Other migrants defended the man in court, saying that he started steering their boat to save lives after a capsizing.

• Algeria
• Western Sahara
• Libya

At the age of 15, Aboubacar, now a refugee in France, fled Guinea. When he crossed the Algerian desert to reach Libya, he was one of only two survivors. Aboubacar told InfoMigrants about this traumatic journey.

• Croatia
• Hungary
• Montenegro

A new report has placed a spotlight on the migrant smuggling business and other illicit activities running through the Western Balkans, including drugs and money laundering. The report estimates that the migrant smuggling business alone could be worth up to €50 million per year in the region.