The Hague, 5 July 2022
Law enforcement authorities identify up to 60 new suspects as well as around 130 potential victims
In a joint action supported by Europol, officers of the participating European law enforcement entities and labour inspectorate authorities arrested over 130 criminals and successfully identified around 60 new suspects. The joint action days against trafficking in human beings took place from 6 to 13 of June 2022, and were coordinated by Frontex with the participation of 22 countries alongside INTERPOL.
More than 22 480 law enforcement officers took part in the action days, during which checks were carried out at European sea, land, and air borders, with an additional focus on heavily utilised routes into Europe.
More than 130 arrests and identification of over 130 potential victims
The action days resulted in over 130 arrests and around 60 additional suspects being identified, as well as more than 100 new investigations being initiated. In total, over 130 possible victims of human trafficking were identified, more than a dozen of them being confirmed as minors. The checks led to over 220 forged documents being detected.
During the action days, law enforcement checked approximately:
- 13 500 locations
- 193 020 vehicles
- 970 440 persons
- 101 790 documents
During the action days, law enforcement also checked the identity of over 11 130 minors, who remain the most vulnerable group within persons being trafficked and exploited. Many fall victim to sexual exploitation, forced begging or different types of forced criminality, including petty crimes and drug trafficking. They also become victims of labour exploitation and domestic slavery.
Europol’s role
Europol supported the coordination of the operational activities, facilitated the exchange of information, and provided analytical support. On the action days, Europol activated a Virtual Command Post to facilitate the information exchange in real time, while dedicated analysts cross-checked operational information against Europol’s databases. This provided further investigative leads to the participating national law enforcement authorities.
Participating countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.