An international gang of human traffickers who smuggled Syrian and Palestinian nationals to Belgium via Athens was rounded up this week as part of a large-scale police investigation.
The Halle-Vilvoorde Federal Judicial Police raided 12 different addresses in West Flanders, East Flanders, Charleroi, Antwerp and Brussels on Monday 13 November as part of an investigation into human smuggling through the country's largest airport in Zaventem. Eight suspects were arrested during these searches, the Halle-Vilvoorde Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed on Tuesday.
"The criminal organisation first came into focus when a suspicious person was arrested at Zaventem airport trying to smuggle three people into our country from Athens in April 2022," a statement from the Public Prosecutor's Office read.
An investigation was launched in cooperation with the Greek police and with the support of Europol and Eurojust. They succeeded in identifying a network of human traffickers who smuggled Syrian and Palestinian nationals to Belgium via Athens.
'Imposter system'
On average, the victims had to pay €5,500 to the traffickers for their journey. The gang worked with the so-called "imposter system", through which authentic Greek travel documents whose photos bear a strong physical resemblance to the victims are used. Once the victims arrived in Belgium, they were given fake European documents to travel on to other Western European countries.
"This modus operandi is a typical example of human trafficking; tackling this phenomenon is one of the absolute priorities of the new security plan for Brussels Airport," the Public Prosecutor's Office said.
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The suspects arrested in Belgium will be arraigned before the investigating judge. In the Greek capital, four house searches also took place on Monday, resulting in two suspects being arrested with a view to extradition to Belgium. A suspect was also arrested in Sweden.
During the searches, €40,000 cash was seized in Belgium and €160,000 in Greece, while several forged identity documents were also found.
