German, EU Police Bust Human Trafficking Ring Smuggling Africans to Europe

Europol announced that German police with the help of the EU law enforcement agency busted a human trafficking group that smuggled Africans into Europe.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – German police with the help of EU law enforcement agency Europol on Wednesday busted a human trafficking group that smuggled Africans into Europe, predominantly into Scandinavia.

The gang was run by three men aged between 22 and 26 who had connections across the 28-nation European Union. They were arrested and their property in northern Germany searched, Europol said in a statement.

The smugglers brought undocumented immigrants to southern Europe using different travel routes. After their arrival into Europe, migrants were put on train and sent on their way to Paris and then to the western German city of Cologne, from where many of them continued on to Scandinavia.

Another human trafficking network with cells all over Italy was broken up a month ago.

Refugees from Northern Africa and the Middle East were brought across the Mediterranean and farther into Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia.

Tens of thousands of undocumented migrants, often fleeing war-torn countries of origin, enter Italy across the Mediterranean Sea, their main route to Europe.

According to the United Nations, more than 35,000 asylum seekers and migrants have arrived in southern Europe in 2015, around 1,600 of whom have died.