The European Union’s interior ministers, meeting in Prague on Monday 11 July, discussed the consequences of the war in Ukraine on internal security in the EU, organised crime groups that may try to take advantage of the situation and ‘open borders’ for Ukrainian refugees.
The main threat concerns human trafficking and arms smuggling, where, according to Europol, criminal networks have started to develop and weapons left by Ukrainians at the EU border have also been recovered by criminal groups.
The subject was specifically discussed with the Ukrainian minister, Denys Monastyrskyy, and the Moldovan minister, Ana Revenco. This was the first foreign trip by the Ukrainian minister since the start of the Russian invasion of his country, said the Czech Minister, Vít Rakušan, who hosted the informal ministerial meeting.
Mr Monastyrskyy reported on his country’s need to rebuild the security and police forces and police equipment in general. He appealed to Europeans for help in restoring security, the Czech minister said. “We also discussed potential risks that we should try to anticipate”, he added, such as the exploitation of human beings or forced labour.
By the end of June, between 20 and 25 cases of human exploitation had been identified “in five to six Member States”, explained the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson.
And while Europol does not yet have figures for arms trafficking, the European police cooperation agency recalled in a note dated 30 June that the war between Russia and Ukraine in 2014 had already resulted in the ‘disappearance’ of 300,000 small arms and light weapons.
These volumes could be amplified today, as the West has delivered more weapons to Ukraine.
Trafficking in drugs and explosives is also a concern for the ministers, who discussed it in the framework of the EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats) network.
Hub. On Monday, the Commission announced the launch of a platform to support internal security and border management in Moldova, in cooperation with EU agencies and Member States.
The ‘hub’ will be established in Chișinău and coordinated by the EU Delegation to Moldova. It will operate in six priority areas: firearms trafficking, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in human beings, preventing and combating terrorism and violent extremism, cybercrime and drug trafficking.
Police officers or security experts from Member States may also be deployed, as well as staff from Europol or Frontex - which is already cooperating with Moldova.
Link to the note: https://aeur.eu/f/2l4 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)