1 week Ago By Michael Knowles
Brexit Britain can “dodge the bullet” of another emerging migrant crisis in Europe. The expansion of the EU’s open borders scheme – the Schengen Area – on January 1 has led to a new “route” through the Balkan region in recent months. Smugglers are exploiting the changes by taking migrants through Bulgaria, into Romania, the Daily Express understands.
Criminal gangs are effectively able to exploit a 400-mile land and avoid stringent border checks along Bulgaria’s border with Serbia. Law enforcement chiefs are said to be particularly concerned by this development after years of intensive efforts to stop networks crossing from Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece. A Home Office source said: “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 leader Richard Tice said: “ 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 passed through the Western Balkan route into Europe last year.
The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, jetted to Serbia this week to bolster intelligence sharing that could snare the smuggling gangs operating in the Balkan region. Mr Lammy warned smugglers in the region are “becoming increasingly violent in their determination to make as much money as possible”. Officials see the Organised Crime agreement with Belgrade – first signed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer – as another example 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 in the Serbian capital, Sarajevo, but its operations are believed to be focussed on the areas bordering Montenegro to the south and, particularly, Croatia to the north and west.
Bulgaria and Romania’s ascension into the Schengen Zone means there are no longer land border controls between Bulgaria and Romania, Romania and Hungary and Bulgaria and Greece. The countries joined the Schengen area in March after years of negotiations, providing free access for travellers arriving in both countries by air or sea. Romania and Bulgaria, both members of the European Union since 2007, were partially included in the Schengen zone last March, eliminating border checks at ports and airports.
But Austria had threatened to veto their full entry over migration concerns, which meant that controls still applied at land border crossings. Vienna backed off its veto threat in December after the three countries reached a deal on a "border protection package", clearing the way for Romania and Bulgaria, two of the EU's poorest countries, to join Schengen. BWK rose to prominence in 2023 and has controlled many of the migrant smuggling routes in Bosnia’s border areas for more than a year.
Over that time, the smugglers’ tactics have changed to adapt to a tightening of the EU’s external frontier. With fewer ‘customers’, the smugglers have embraced more violence, adding theft, kidnapping and extortion to their portfolio and preying in particular on victims of ‘pushbacks’ by border police..
