The nearly 220 cases focusing on migrant smuggling investigations coordinated through Eurojust in 2020, often in close cooperation with Europol, aimed to cover criminal activity along all major migrant smuggling routes to the European Union. In addition, Eurojust launched a Focus Group for Prosecutors on Migrant Smuggling and published a new casework report that analysed cross-border investigations tackling sham marriages, since such marriages of convenience are one of the main forms of facilitating irregular migration.

Key operational results include:

• #JusticeDone: Based on evidence resulting from a JIT between Belgium, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom, eight men were found guilty in the United Kingdom of being involved in the criminal group that caused the death of 39 Vietnamese nationals inside a refrigerated trailer in Essex in the United Kingdom in October 2019.

• Actions against OCGs smuggling migrants across the English Channel, including 23 arrests by France and the Netherlands in January and an action in September leading to the arrest of 12 members of an OCG that endangered the lives of hundreds of migrants while transporting them on rubber boats from France to the United Kingdom.

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