Four people were arrested on suspicion of facilitating the trafficking of two minors into the European Union as part of the first phase of Joint Operation VEGA Children 2015 carried out by Frontex.
During the operation that took place at nine EU airports from 12 June to 8 July, teams including border guards and experts from five international organisations and non-governmental organisation worked together to help combat the plight of child trafficking.
The teams helped identify children at risk and on the move and referred them to welfare and child protection institutions while applying the standard operational procedures based on the VEGA Children Handbook. The handbook was prepared by Frontex and its partners.
“With the Joint Operation VEGA Children 2015, we are facilitating the cooperation of border guards and various organisations dealing with the problem of children trafficking. By working together, we hope to help battle this problem at airports, the likeliest places to find children being trafficked or smuggled into the EU,” said Klaus Rösler, Director of Operations at Frontex.
During the first phase, two person who said they were minors were detected in two incidents, one at the Amsterdam Schiphol airport and the other at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Three adults were arrested in Paris and one in Amsterdam on suspicion of facilitating an entry of children into the EU.
Eighteen Member States directly participated in VEGA Children 2015, which took place at EU airports: Amsterdam, Bucharest, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Madrid, Paris, Porto, Stockholm, Vienna, and Warsaw. The five organisations that took part were: UNHCR, Halina Centre, PICUM, IOM, Terre des hommes.
During this first phase of operation VEGA Children 2015, Frontex also supported a Europol-coordinated global action against online air ticket fraudsters, during which 130 persons were detained. Some of the people were suspected of being involved in other forms of crimes, including trafficking of human beings, illegal immigration, smuggling of goods, drug trafficking, fraud, cybercrime and terrorism.