Twenty years’ imprisonment for large-scale and violent human smuggling of Eritrean migrants

Extortion of family members

The court finds that over a prolonged period the man was guilty of an exceptionally serious, large-scale and violent form of human smuggling. Under his direction or on his instructions, migrants were rounded up and detained in warehouses in Libya in appalling conditions. They were held there in their hundreds and subjected to physical abuse, extortion and starvation. In the camps, migrants were assaulted while being forced to telephone their family members, who were thereby coerced into transferring money to pay for the crossing of their relatives. Only once payment for the journey to Europe had been made was a migrant permitted to leave the camp and continue travelling. The assaults were frequently carried out by accomplices of the defendant. The victims included children and pregnant women.

Sea crossing

Under the leadership of the defendant, an Eritrean national, the smuggling organisation ensured that boats were made available in northern Libya for the crossing of the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. These were inflatable dinghies or wooden vessels that were often overcrowded, leaking and unseaworthy. In many cases, the boats were left at sea without an engine, and there was frequently a lack of adequate life jackets, while most of the migrants were unable to swim. Witness statements show that migrants feared for their lives both in the camps and during the journey. Witnesses also saw some of their fellow travellers lose their lives while attempting to reach Europe. It was apparent that for the defendant and his accomplices, making money was more important than the lives, health and wellbeing of the migrants.

Twenty-year prison sentence

The court has imposed a custodial sentence of twenty years on the 42-year-old man, being the maximum term of imprisonment available in the present case. The court emphasised the horrific nature of the offences, stating that this was so “on the one hand because of the undermining of Dutch and European immigration policy, but on the other hand, and above all, because of the particularly cruel, violent and inhuman treatment to which the defendant and his accomplices subjected the migrants”. The man was also ordered to pay a total of more than €30,000 in compensation to the victims.

Jurisdiction of the Dutch courts

The offences for which the man was convicted largely took place outside the Netherlands. The Dutch courts nevertheless have jurisdiction because the migrants who were the focus of the investigation travelled on to the Netherlands within a relatively short time after their arrival in Italy in order to apply for asylum. In addition, the extorted family members were resident in the Netherlands. The criminal offences were therefore committed in part in the Netherlands, conferring jurisdiction on the Netherlands and rendering the Overijssel District Court competent to hear the case.