Authorities arrested 205 people allegedly tied to Central and Eastern European gangs smuggling tens of thousands of Syrians in the EU. The €150 million ring reportedly used Vienna as a hub to move migrants from Hungary to Germany and France.
UNHCR has reported that known cases of human trafficking from the war in Ukraine "are thankfully few", but "we are on high alert and warning refugees about the risks of predators and criminal networks."
Another person has been jailed in the UK for his part in a people smuggling operation that led to the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants inside a lorry in October 2019.
A group of 16 migrants from India have been detained by police in North Macedonia. They are reported to have been attempting to reach Greece on a new route being used by people smugglers.
Austrian police say they have uncovered an illegal operation that has been smuggling migrants in a box hidden under a truck from Romania. Eight migrants found on Wednesday were suffering from hypothermia and some had passed out.
EU is ramping up efforts to stem the flow of irregular migrants attempting to enter the bloc from Belarus. Flight companies that connect Minsk to destinations in the Middle East could be a target of the EU's punitive measures.
A new report by Save The Children Italy revealed that in 2020, the national anti-trafficking system had 2,040 victims of trafficking in its care, 716 of whom were new cases that emerged during the year. The majority of cases are women, and Nigeria was the leading country of origin.
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.
There are growing calls for the release of five girls being held in a government-run migrant detention center in Libya. One of the girls told the Associated Press that all of them had been subjected to sexual abuse.
More than 2,000 migrants have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa over the past two days. Many are from Bangladesh, where myths spread about Europe lead tens of thousands of people to embark on deadly journeys.
Increasing numbers of Nigerian women are being trafficked into prostitution in Burkina Faso’s gold mining camps, an investigation has revealed. Lured by traffickers who promise them jobs, they end up with huge debts and no way out.
Police in northern Greece have arrested 13 people accused of migrant smuggling. The men reportedly abducted and tortured migrants as young as 16 years old.