Coninsx, who is head of the EU’s judicial agency Eurojust has admitted receiving information that vessels are being infiltrated by terrorists who may end up on European shores, adding that it is not yet clear what precise problem the infiltrated Islamic militants may pose.
Coninsx admitted that she knew groups like IS are using money from smuggling people across the sea to fund terrorism. She said:
"It is an alarming situation because we see obviously that these smugglers are meant to sometimes finance terrorism, that these smugglings are used sometimes to have and ensure exfiltrations and infiltrations of members of Islamic State."
The UN Refugee Agency says the numbers of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe almost doubled from 74,850 last year – to 13,840 in 2015. Ninety percent off all the boats carrying desperate migrants across the Mediterranean Sea start their journey in Libya — which is fast becoming a lawless state where smugglers are able to act with impunity.
The migrants hand over vast sums of money to reach Europe, often paying with their life.
In 2014, more than 207,000 migrants and refugees made the risky Mediterranean crossing to get to Europe – nearly three times the previous highest figure of 70,000 in 2011. Of those, some 3,400 died.
It’s believed smugglers mingle with migrants to avoid the authorities but dozens have been arrested in Sicily and southern Italy. The next complication it seems is the question of how many migrants are in fact IS terrorists.
But the revelation that terrorists are infiltrating smuggling rings across the Mediterranean should come as no surprise.
Classified documents recently released by Wikileaks revealed an acknowledgement by the EU military committee that military that “the potential presence of hostile forces, extremists, or terrorists such as Da’esh [ISIL] should also be taken into consideration,” during operations to seize boats carrying migrants.
Coninsx, who is also Eurojust’s chief official for terrorism investigations, says: “We’re going after the criminals. We’re going after the money”. Eurojust is working with several EU agencies to quash people smuggling rings and human traffickers.
