The Council of Europe expresses its concern at the rise of trafficking in the midst of a pandemic at a time when Spanish police arrest 20 people involved in illegal smuggling ring from boats from the Maghreb to Spain. The network that was dismantled is believed to be responsible for a shipwreck in February in which four people lost their lives.
The victims were mostly Moroccan minors approaching Ceuta, the Spanish enclave off the northern coast of Morocco, a few kilometers off the southern coast of Spain, police said.
Immigrants paid traffickers an average of 2,500 euros to get 7 to 10 people on a boat and arrive in Spain.
In February, four people were killed in a shipwreck believed to have belonged to the network.
Migrant shipwreck deaths are common in this western Mediterranean region, with 330 dying in 2020, according to an International Organization for Migration (IOM) report.
From the beginning of the year until the end of March, according to the Athens News Agency, about 4,377 migrants arrived in Spain by sea, half of them in the Canary Islands, where since 2019 there has been a rapid increase in migrant arrivals.
Exploitation of the pandemic
Traffickers across Europe are using his pandemic coronavirus to exploit the most vulnerable people, while efforts to bring to justice and support their victims have stalled, according to a Council of Europe report.
Restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic and its economic consequences have worsened the outlook for victims trafficking on the European continent, as they are more difficult to locate or access the health system and hostels, the same source said.
«The effects of the pandemic have made trafficking victims even more vulnerable“, Complained Helga Gayer, head of the Security Council’s anti-trafficking expert group, known as GRETA.
Although there are no estimates for the whole of Europe, some 25 million people worldwide are victims of trafficking, according to the UN, and there are fears that many more will be exploited as their support services are reduced and court proceedings are delayed.
A UN expert pointed out last year that the covid-19 pandemic meant that crime had spread to even more invisible networks and become less visible.
GRETA’s annual report states that there is an increase in sexual exploitation, with traffickers turning to the internet to locate their victims.
In Germany, the temporary suspension of official prostitution services in 2020 led to a rise in “hidden” prostitution, where abuse is more prevalent, while in Spain criminals used short-term rental apartments to exploit their victims.
GRETA also urged European governments to identify and protect migrants who fall victim to trafficking within their borders, amid rising asylum applications.
In some countries, such as Malta, access by UN, NGOs and lawyers to asylum seekers and refugee detention centers has been restricted or completely curtailed.
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