INTERPOL Liaison with the European Migrant Smuggling Centre

ended

This 24 month-long action will consolidate INTERPOL’s involvement in the Information Clearing House (ICH) by building on the substantial work that has been conducted since 2019. The aim is to set strong foundations that will safeguard INTERPOL’s future involvement within the ICH - beyond the implementation period of this action - and ensure it can contribute effectively and on the long-term to this initiative. This action will therefore help ensure the ICH, which has already rendered noteworthy results, continues to contribute positively to the overall fight against migrant smuggling (SOM) and trafficking in persons (TIP) for the benefit of the countries affected in EU and the vulnerable people at risk of falling prey to traffickers and smugglers. The ICH is a joint effort from various key stakeholders in line with the European Commission’s aim to approach migration-related matters in a comprehensive manner. It led to the deployment in 2019 of a specialized INTERPOL Liaison Officer (LO) to the ICH located at Europol’s European Migrant Smuggling Centre (EMSC) at the Hague (Netherlands). INTERPOL’s unique mandate has enabled it to contribute actively to the key objectives of this initiative: to collect, analyse and disseminate evidence and intelligence from/to all relevant actors in order to reduce information gaps, provide a common risk analysis and assessment, and identify investigative opportunities. Indeed, as a neutral platform with 194 member countries, INTERPOL has the ability to coordinate international efforts to target criminal networks, not just in destination but also in source and transit countries. This action aims to result inter alia in increased information sharing, in particular operational and strategic intelligence (not only in relation to SOM but also in relation TIP). It will also aim at achieving additional successful operational results as a result of INTERPOL’s presence at the ICH and to further deepen the cooperation with ICH partners.