German police have recorded a drastic rise in migrant smuggling cases.

German police recorded a drastic rise in human smuggling last year, registering 7,920 incidents – an increase of 60% compared to 2022. The number of individuals suspected of criminal involvement in smuggling migrants to Germany rose by 26% to 4,404, according to The European Conservative news site.

Az Among the perpetrators, Syrians stand out as the most strongly represented nationality: 752 Syrian nationals were registered, followed by 405 Germans, 397 Ukrainians, 389 Turks, and 173 Afghans.

According to police, Syrians and Turks usually smuggle their own countrymen into Germany, while Ukrainian smugglers mainly bring in Syrian and Afghan migrants from the EU’s border with Belarus.

Investigators said it was worrying that, in an increasing number of cases, people were transported in containers that posed a risk to their lives. There is a risk of oxygen or water deprivation as well as hypothermia or injuries in the event of accidents during such journeys.

„Most frequently, vans that are easy to rent and for which no special driving licence is required were used for this purpose,” the police said in a statement. The average number of people found in vans rose from ten to nineteen.

In total, the authorities registered 266,224 unauthorised entries, an increase of 33% compared to the previous year. Most of the illegal migrants came from Syria (54,207 people), Turkey (35,732), and Afghanistan (35,370).

As The European Conservative highlights,

the above numbers are particularly alarming in light of a wave of knife attacks committed by mostly Syrian and Afghan migrants.

A shocking crime report presented by the police this week states that “non-Germans are statistically six times more likely to resort to knives in an attack than German citizens. And in sexual crimes, it is seven times more likely.”

As reported by V4NA in a recent article, the number of knife crimes in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has increased by almost fifty percent. Young men are over-represented among both the alleged perpetrators and victims.

According to police crime statistics, in 2022 there were 4,191 crimes involving knives, rising to 6,221 in 2023. One in three suspects was under 21, almost 87 per cent were male, and almost half of the suspects, 47.4 per cent, did not have a German passport.

Young men were also over-represented among the victims. One third of the 8036 registered victims were under 21 years old, and more than three quarters (76.5 percent) were male. 38.3 percent did not have a German passport.