Bucharest, June 18, 2015 – Over 40 representatives of the law enforcement authorities from SELEC Member States and partners (French Republic, Kingdom of Spain and OSCE) attended the 22nd Meeting of Task Force Mirage which took place at SELEC premises on 18th of June 2015. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Cristian Duţă, Director for Operations of SELEC, together with Mr. Eliodor Tanislav, Romanian Police Liaison Officer.
The aims of the meeting were the evaluation of the regional situation on trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants for the year 2014, discussions on trafficking in persons’ related issues and planning future operational activities.
On this occasion, the 2014 Regional Evaluation Report on Trafficking in Human Beings and Migrant Smuggling was discussed and successful joint investigations in the field of migrants smuggling, such as “ANIMA”, “AVANTI”, “OSKAR”, “M5”, “THE ADVISER”, awarded by SELEC Bi-Annual Awards Committee in 2014, were presented.
Mr. Duţă emphasized that “The results of the 2014 Regional Report shows growing trends of illegal migration in the region, which increased considerably in the last years due to the current sensitive situation in some African and Middle East countries. The organized crime groups go beyond borders and include citizens of many countries that organize, facilitate and carry out the migrants from their country of origin to the final destination, the SELEC Member States being used as transit countries on the Balkan route towards the Western Europe. One of the prerequisites in preventing and combating illegal migration and human smuggling is the cooperation of all law enforcement authorities involved in tackling this phenomenon.”
The representatives of the Member States presented also other successful cases in the field, highlighting new trends, modus operandi, routes and investigative methods.
The Task Force Mirage is one of the oldest SELEC’s task forces, being established in 2000 and coordinated by Romania.
