New smuggling route sparks alarm however ‘Brexit means UK dodges bullet’ | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Brexit Britain can “dodge the bullet” of one other rising migrant disaster in Europe.

The enlargement of the EU’s open borders scheme – the Schengen Area – on January 1 has led to a brand new “route” by means of the Balkan area in latest months.

Smugglers are exploiting the adjustments by taking migrants by means of Bulgaria, into Romania, the Daily Express understands. Criminal gangs are successfully in a position to exploit a 400-mile land and keep away from stringent border checks alongside Bulgaria’s border with Serbia.

Law enforcement chiefs are stated to be significantly involved by this improvement after years of intensive efforts to cease networks crossing from Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece.

A Home Office supply stated: “We have to keep close monitoring of any changes in the routes smugglers might be taking.

“We’re working with partners, law enforcement and intelligence to tackle these gangs, this includes work across the Western Balkans.”

Reform UK deputy chief Richard Tice stated: “Brexit has meant that the UK has dodged yet another bullet.

“The EU’s dogmatic commitment to the free movement of people is changing the face of Europe forever. Thankfully, we can finally control our borders again.

“All eyes are on the Labour government to get a grip and stop the boats, or they risk migrant crisis magnitudes bigger than anything we’ve seen before.”

Some 22,000 migrants are believed to have handed by means of the Western Balkan route into Europe final yr.

The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, jetted to Serbia this week to bolster intelligence sharing that would snare the smuggling gangs working within the Balkan area.

Mr Lammy warned smugglers within the area are “becoming increasingly violent in their determination to make as much money as possible”.

Officials see the Organised Crime settlement with Belgrade – first signed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer – as one other instance of “working with neighbouring countries to combine resources and share intelligence and tactics”.

Reports have emerged of an armed Afghan people-smuggling gang kidnapping migrants for ransoms on the Serbian border with Bosnia.

Smugglers are understood to have already shifted their routes away from Serbia, amid a police crackdown, to neighbouring Bosnia.

The ruthless Afghan gang – BWK – had a presence within the Serbian capital, Sarajevo, however its operations are believed to be focussed on the areas bordering Montenegro to the south and, significantly, Croatia to the north and west.

Bulgaria and Romania’s ascension into the Schengen Zone means there are now not land border controls between Bulgaria and Romania, Romania and Hungary and Bulgaria and Greece.

The nations joined the Schengen space in March after years of negotiations, offering free entry for travellers arriving in each nations by air or sea.

Romania and Bulgaria, each members of the European Union since 2007, had been partially included within the Schengen zone final March, eliminating border checks at ports and airports.

But Austria had threatened to veto their full entry over migration considerations, which meant that controls nonetheless utilized at land border crossings.

Vienna backed off its veto risk in December after the three nations reached a deal on a “border protection package”, clearing the way in which for Romania and Bulgaria, two of the EU’s poorest nations, to affix Schengen.

BWK rose to prominence in 2023 and has managed lots of the migrant smuggling routes in Bosnia’s border areas for greater than a yr.

Over that point, the smugglers’ ways have modified to adapt to a tightening of the EU’s exterior frontier. With fewer ‘customers’, the smugglers have embraced extra violence, including theft, kidnapping and extortion to their portfolio and preying particularly on victims of ‘pushbacks’ by border police.