Thanks to a tough approach by people smugglers who transport transit migrants to the United Kingdom through Belgium, the number of transit migrants has fallen dramatically. In 2018, 13,000 transit migrants were found in Belgium, which led to terrible scenes. But due to more police checks, severe penalties for smugglers and the creation of the Transit team at the Belgian Federal Police, which analyses the smartphones of smugglers and their victims, 116 smugglers have been caught and punished. Last year, there were less than 1,000 transit migrants in Belgium, a decrease of 90%.

“While this is good news, we must not be naive and let our attention relax,” said Federal Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne. Many people are still fleeing to Europe and there will always be criminals who want to take advantage of that. That’s why the TransIT team remains committed to getting these criminals behind bars even faster and saving lives, making our country safer.”