The Greek coast guard says it has arrested four suspected human smugglers after a chase off the Aegean island of Kos. The suspects reportedly brought more than 40 migrants from Turkey to Greece with two speedboats Tuesday evening.
The suspected people smugglers had already dropped off the migrants on Kos in the Aegean Sea and were on their way back to Turkey when the chase began, the Greek coast guard announced in a press release on Wednesday (January 3).
According to the press release, the suspects initially tried to escape the officers using dangerous maneuvers. When neither light and sound signals nor warning shots stopped the suspects, Greek officers destroyed the engines of the speedboats with targeted shots, the coast guard said.
Moreover, local authorities "located and arrested" six of the disembarked migrants and subsequently another 37 inside a public bus on the island of Kos. The Kos port authority, which is conducting the preliminary investigation, seized the two speedboats, according to the press release.
Smuggling gangs try to bring migrants from Turkey to the nearby Greek islands, which are EU territory, on a daily basis, news agency dpa reported. According to the UN migration agency IOM, 375 migrants died or went missing in the eastern Mediterranean last year, more than three times as many as in 2021.
Read more: Turkey says it rescued 81 migrants, accuses Greece of sea pushbacks
Lucrative and dangerous business
Migrant smuggling is a highly profitable and highly organized business. Some smuggling networks transport thousands of migrants to Europe. Tuesday's incident, moreover, highlights the dangers migrants face while trying to reach European countries with the help of smugglers, who are frequently arrested both inside and outside the EU.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), migrant smuggling is the "facilitation, for financial or other material gain, of irregular entry into a country where the migrant is not a national or resident."
The main difference between migrant smuggling and human trafficking, according to UNODC, is "financial or material benefit" vs. the actual exploitation of the victim and their person.
Also read: One dead, three injured as minibus carrying migrants crashes in Greece
With dpa