Saxony police: Ukrainians have become leaders in smuggling migrants to Germany
Ukrainian citizens have become record-breakers in the number of detained smugglers ferrying migrants to Germany in the first half of 2023, Saxony police spokesman Marcel Pretzsch told Bild.
“There are about 139 kilometres of border with Poland, 453 kilometres with the Czech Republic. Refugees are transported across the Saxon border every day. But now the federal police are observing a new phenomenon: hired smugglers from the human smuggling mafia have recently been coming from Ukraine in increasing numbers,” the article reads.
As Pretsch noted, in the first half of the year, Ukrainians have squeezed out Syrians, who were leading in the number of people smugglers detained in 2021 and 2022. Thus, 37 Ukrainian citizens, 24 Czech citizens and 18 natives of Uzbekistan were detained on the Czech border for six months, while on the Polish border – 29 Ukrainians, 19 Syrians and 11 Belarusians.
As a police spokesman told Bild, the trend is linked to financial problems, due to which citizens of a number of countries are trying to earn “quick money”.
“Thanks to their proximity to Germany, Ukrainians can now be recruited faster,” he said. According to District Judge Simon Widmer, Ukrainians are receiving offers of “jobs” from their compatriots in Telegram chat rooms.
As previously reported by the European Border Agency (Frontex), the number of detected illegal migrants at the borders of the European Union in the first eight months of this year was the highest since 2016.
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