Transmigration via Belgium down by 90 percent since 2018 | Interior

In 2018, the police still found almost 13,000 transmigrants on the territory, but that number has fallen by 90 percent in recent years, to 1,065 in 2022. In 2021 there were still 4,100.

According to Minister Van Quickenborne, this is partly due to frequent police actions, extensive international cooperation against human smuggling, the data-driven reading of seized smartphones by the TransIT team of the Federal Judicial Police (FGP) and strict punishments for human smugglers. In West Flanders alone, according to figures from the public prosecutor’s office, 116 people smugglers have been convicted since the beginning of 2019. The prison sentences run up to 15 years.

“We absolutely want to avoid our country becoming a Valhalla for transmigration, especially for the smugglers behind it,” says van Quickenborne. “Two years ago we set up the TransIT team to systematically read mobile phones to find the networks behind them.”

The TransIT team consists of five people from the FGP in West Flanders. “However, the team mainly works with local police zones, such as West Coast, and the shipping police,” explains Van Quickenborne. “We are going to expand this to several police zones in the province and also have the information shared with the Immigration Department, in order to be able to deport transmigrants to their country of origin.”

The fact that climbing into trucks, as was often the case in the port of Zeebrugge, has been made a criminal offence, also has a dissuasive effect, according to the minister. According to figures from West Flemish governor Carl Decaluwé, the number of ascents in Zeebrugge has fallen enormously from the beginning of this year: from 2,500 in 2018 to 250 last year.

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