Refugees land at Lesbos island, close to Eftalou, Greece, after crossing the Aegean Sea, Nov. 8, 2015. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
BRUSSELS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The number of suspects who are smuggling migrants to Europe has continued to increase, with more than 12,000 new suspects reported in the first eight months of this year alone, said a report on Monday.
Turkish nationals are the top suspects in smuggling migrants to Europe, according to the report by Europol, the EU police agency.
Europol cited a 295.3 percent increase in the first eight months of this year when compared to 2015. Some 423 Turkish nationals were suspected of the crime compared to 107 last year.
Syrians, Bulgarians and Romanians followed as other top smuggler nationalities.
"The nationalities of these suspects reflect the evolution of the migratory routes as smuggling networks tend to use local nationals to facilitate the transport and accommodation of irregular migrants," Europol's report said.
According to the International Organization for Migration, 272,070 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea between Jan.1 and Aug. 28, 2016, compared with 353,628 in the same period of last year.
Along with the decline in number, the picture of migrant smuggling to and within the EU has undergone significant changes, according to the report.
One key development is the shift in migrant smuggling routes used to enter the EU and reach preferred destination countries.
In the past weeks, crossings along the Eastern Mediterranean route have increased, whereas the Central Mediterranean route continues to be the primary entry route for migrant smuggling into the EU in 2016.
Meanwhile, Europol found that smugglers have demonstrated a constant ability to adapt to stricter border controls and use new routes and modi operandi to evade law enforcement attention and maintain their highly profitable business.
As stricter controls have been implemented between the European countries, bottlenecks and informal camps have emerged at intra-Schengen border areas.
"As a result, these have become a preferred place for smugglers to advertise their services to stranded migrants, increasingly offering fraudulent documents to allow them to move forward into the EU," the report said.
Facing such a challenging backdrop, Europol and its European Migrant Smuggling Centre (EMSC) currently has deployed 42 experts and analysts to help the EU member states fighting migrant smuggling.
