How smugglers burden the police and the judiciary

It wasn’t just the number of people smuggling that increased last year. The smugglers are also becoming more and more aggressive. This is putting increasing strain on the judiciary.

Patrick Rautenberg looks intently at the traffic on the A94 near Mühldorf near the Bavarian-Austrian border. The experienced investigator doesn’t have to wait long. A black minibus with an Albanian license plate appears. “A typical smuggling vehicle,” says Rautenberg.

His colleague presses the accelerator. In the end, this check is inconspicuous, like most checks, says Rautenberg. But some become dangerous chases – sometimes with fatal consequences.

Unauthorized entries into Germany increased in 2023 compared to the previous year. In 2023, the federal police registered almost 128,000 illegal border crossings, around 39 percent more than in 2022.

Many cases for the judiciary

In addition, many federal police officers report that smugglers are becoming more ruthless. This increases the dangers for refugees, innocent road users and the police.

Another consequence: every smuggling uncovered becomes a case for the judiciary. Public prosecutors and courts in the border regions have more and more to do – at times they can no longer keep up.

Today Rautenberg’s shift is quiet. The next vehicle checked also only had a family with a baby on board, no smugglers. But a lot of what he and his colleagues from the federal police experience at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria end up in the hands of the judiciary.

Such as the accident near Ampfing in the Mühldorf district. Seven refugees died there in October 2023 when the car rolled over several times after a chase with the police. Or the case of the smuggler who rushed straight at one of Rautenberg’s colleagues. She was just able to save herself by jumping to the side.

Significant increase in Smuggling procedures

Pia Dirnberger, public prosecutor in Traunstein near the border, takes care of such cases. She is currently preparing for a trial that will last several days against a smuggler and is going over the charges again. The smuggler is accused, among other things, of threatening the refugees with a weapon.

Dirnberger spends half of her working time on smuggling cases. Last fall, their department was bombarded with so many new procedures that they had to distribute the work throughout the building.

In the federal states where the Balkan route ends for many refugees, smuggling cases have increased significantly in recent years. In Bavaria, the number of procedures more than tripled between 2019 and 2023. In Brandenburg, public prosecutors had to process 28 percent more cases last year than in 2022.

In Saxony, cases have almost doubled in the same period. The Pirna district court was now almost exclusively occupied with smuggling cases. Rooms became scarce, interpreters were missing and court employees were also reaching their limits.

Complex reports

But smuggling cases are not only increasing, they are also becoming more and more complex, explains Traunstein public prosecutor Pia Dirnberger. The more ruthless the smugglers are, the higher the punishment will be in the end.

But it is labor-intensive to prove whether and how smugglers have endangered other people. For example, the trafficked people have to act as witnesses to describe the driver’s breakneck driving style. Most of the time they need an interpreter.

The numerous reports are also complex, for example to prove that a smuggling trip could have ended fatally. The search for the people behind it, who are usually based abroad, is also complex. In the case of cross-border investigations, special state contracts must first be concluded on the legal details of cooperation, said Dirnberger.

Pro Asyl: Inhumane conditions at the EU’s external borders

It is difficult to predict how migration movements to Germany will develop in the future. According to a spokeswoman for the Berlin Federal Police Directorate, Brandenburg has had good experiences with stationary border controls. Refugees now cross the border more often on foot instead of in dangerously overcrowded vans.

Human rights organizations like Pro Asyl have a different view of the development. The conditions for refugees in the states on Europe’s external borders are becoming increasingly inhumane, according to the legal policy spokeswoman for Pro Asyl, Wiebke Judith. As long as this is the case and there are no other legal routes to Germany, refugees are dependent on ruthless smugglers.