Poland expose group involved in human smuggling

Employees of the Bug department of the Polish Border Guard Service have uncovered an international criminal group involved in smuggling migrants across the Polish-Belarusian border to Western European countries.

Some 32 suspects are now under investigation, Caliber.Az reports citing the website of Polish border guards.

"The case, initiated by officers of the operational and investigative department of the Bug department of the Border Guard Service, concerns an organised criminal group, which organized illegal crossing of the Belarusian-Polish border for financial gain," reads the report.

According to the agency, the criminals were transporting undocumented foreigners to the countries of Western Europe. According to preliminary estimates, they managed to transport about 2,600 people in this way. The criminals demanded several thousand US dollars from each of them for illegal border crossing.

Employees of the Border Guard Service and prosecutors concluded that the international criminal group included both citizens of Poland and citizens of Ukraine, Iraq and Belarus.

The migrants were most often citizens of Iraq, Syria and Palestine, who were first sent to Belarus, and after illegally crossing the border with Poland they were transported to the border with Germany.