Ukrainian citizens have become record-breakers in terms of the number of detained smugglers sending migrants to Germany in the first half of 2023. This was reported by the German newspaper Bild.
“There are about 139 kilometres of border with Poland, 453 kilometres with the Czech Republic. Refugees are smuggled 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 come from Ukraine in increasing numbers,” the publication writes.
The representative of the police of Saxony Marcel Pretzsch told the newspaper that for 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 in six months, while 29 Ukrainians, 19 Syrians and 11 Belarusians were detained on the Polish border.
According to Pretsch, the trend is linked to financial problems, due to which citizens of a number of countries are trying to earn “quick money”.
“Thanks to the proximity to Germany, Ukrainians can now be recruited faster,” he said.
A judge from Saxony, Simone Widmer, told the publication that Ukrainian smugglers are recruited via Telegram by their own compatriots, promising up to $2,000 for transporting migrants. The criminals organise the route, prepare transport and establish contact between migrants and smugglers, for which they demand from those who want to get to Germany from €6,000 to €10,000.
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