The possibility of determined terrorists penetrating Europe’s frontiers as hapless migrants, taking advantage of the networks operated by criminal organisations is being felt strongly, Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia said today.
Speaking at the 83rd Interpol general assembly, Dr Mallia said that while modern technological developments were one factor which had given opportunistic criminals new openings, the age-old practice of human trafficking for profit had also seen criminal activity burgeoning as a result of increased migration flows away from war zones, towards better economic prospects, or a combination of both.
In the Mediterranean, international criminal organisations took over this lucrative trade, taking advantage of the despair faced by large numbers of people.
“Besides the innate heinousness of this modern equivalent of the slave trade, this flow of people into the southern borders of Europe is also posing a major security threat,” he said.
Dr Mallia said international co-operation combating this should go beyond the ‘policing of borders’, and move on to real policing.
“We have come to consider policing of borders to be merely patrol operations, very often ending up in search and rescue operations. Real policing on the other hand involves investigation, and most of all information gathering and intelligence, mainly from the countries which are the points of assembly and departure of these human convoys.
“This poses the challenge of having these operations carried out in countries and regions where the current climate of conflict leads to an atmosphere of lawlessness which tips the balance much more in favour of the robbers than the cops.
“In such a scenario, the cooperation and information and intelligence sharing between organised police forces on both continents becomes even more crucial.”
Dr Mallia said that the loosening, or even disappearance, of certain borders, such as in the Schengen area, put the onus of protecting common borders from such infiltration much more of a shared responsibility than it ever was.