International cooperation: The Hague's anti-migrant smuggling investigative team has been renewed.

Il 3th December, All 'The Hague (Netherlands) the agreement establishing a joint investigative team composed of European judicial and police authorities engaged in fighting criminal groups that manage the migrant trafficking and financial flows generated by such illegal activities.

The investigative team represents an advanced model of international cooperation, active since 2018 and established pursuant to art. 19 of the UNTOC Convention (UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime), signed in Palermo on 15 November 2000.

An international project to counter criminal networks from Libya to Europe

The initiative is dedicated to investigating criminal groups that organize clandestine migrant trafficking. from Libya to Italy and other European countries, along the central Mediterranean route.

The team includes: Italy, Netherlands UK through the NCA, Spain, Germany, Europol, Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Through periodic meetings, the magistrates of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Palermo and the investigators of the Central Operations Service of the Rome State Police They directly share information and investigative results on the main criminal groups identified in the various countries involved.

A cross-border criminal phenomenon that requires direct cooperation

Migrant smuggling and human trafficking are transnational criminal phenomena complexes, which no country can face alone.

International collaboration allows for:

• raise the level of individual national investigations;

• track and hit the high-profile criminal networks who drive the business of migrant trafficking;

• coordinate investigative activities and operations more effectively;

• strengthen judicial tools against structured cross-border groups.

Thanks to the project, it becomes possible to bring to justice the traffickers operating at the top of the organizations, often responsible for routes that put thousands of human lives at risk.