GERMANY: 19 arrested for smuggling migrants from Turkey to Europe

MUNICH, Germany — German police have arrested 19 people of Syrian, Lebanese, and Libyan nationalities suspected of involvement in the human trafficking of migrants, mostly of them from Syria to Germany, according to prosecutors in Bavaria.

The prosecutors stated that the suspects, whose ages range between 21 and 44 years, constitute a professional gang that brings migrants to Germany from Turkey through Greece, the Balkans, and Austria via closed trucks.

“Since April 2019, at least 140 people have been brought to Germany by these smugglers in exchange for large sums of money,” the prosecution added.

In August 2019, the German Federal Police discovered the gang when they arrested smugglers who were driving trucks carrying migrants on a highway in the south of Germany near the Austrian border.