European police conduct raids against human trafficking

Police in five European countries launched a cross-border operation against human trafficking on Tuesday and made several arrests, German authorities said.

Officers in Belgium, Britain, France and the Netherlands, as well as Germany, conducted dawn raids involving "hundreds of officers," said police in the northwest German city of Osnabrück, thought to be a key hub for the networks.

"There were numerous searches and arrests in several states" in the operation coordinated by Europol and the EU judicial authority Eurojust, the German police said in a statement.

A spokesman declined to give further details but said police would release more information later in the day.

The German Spiegel reported that the operation was aimed at organized groups bringing migrants to England.

It noted the Osnabrück police as saying that the network had smuggled up to 10,000 people across the English Channel in a highly lucrative scheme over the past 12 to 18 months.

Iraqi-Kurdish suspects were targeted in Osnabrück, and several warehouses and private addresses were searched.

Special forces were deployed because the suspects were considered "armed and dangerous," reported Der Spiegel.

The coordinated action with the UK comes amid rising post-Brexit tensions between London and the EU. Relations with France are particularly strained because of migration.

Now that Britain has left the European Union, it no longer has a repatriation treaty with the 27-state bloc.

Britain has repeatedly accused French authorities of not doing enough to halt crossings.

Although they promised to cooperate, the number of migrants trying to cross the English Channel from France to England has skyrocketed in the first half of this year, according to the French Interior Ministry. From January 1 to June 13, there were 777 attempted crossings involving 20,132 people, up 68 percent from the same period last year, it said.

In a controversial policy, the UK plans to deport illegal migrants, including those arriving via the English Channel, to Rwanda as part of a deal with the African nation.

However, the first flight last month was cancelled following a last-minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg, a decision that infuriated London.

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