the Mossos de Escodra Police have arrested a 42-year-old woman for committing a crime against the rights of foreign citizens, for transporting minors from Somalia to Northern Europe in exchange for $10,000. The alarm went off when … She checked into a hotel in the Catalan capital, in the Sant Martí area, with two children. This was at the request of the European authorities, which have a history of similar cases, as she had previously been intercepted, after being discovered with several minors.
This is how a patrol from the Catalan Legion went to the residence on November 20, and detained her because of her connection to a network dedicated to facilitating the entry of underage migrants into Europe. He had arrived in the Catalan capital the day before. After reviewing their identity documents – those of the woman and the minors – they were sure that, although they were not forged, they did not belong to any of them either.
Investigations allowed us to confirm that the children’s families paid up to that amount $10,000In some cases, children travel from Somalia to Europe accompanied by an adult, who not only accompanies them but also provides them with passports, mobile phones and bank cards.
The documents handed over were original, but belonged to another person with similar physical features to avoid raising suspicions. In addition, they used identity documents from Nordic countries, such as Sweden or Finland, to avoid cross-border security checks at airports.
Thus, once they arrived in Spain, the first contact disappeared and it was the woman who was now in detention who had disappeared He took care of minorsProviding accommodation for them until the flight to the final destination. The person under investigation collects numerous entries and exits from Somalia using other identities. In fact, this was already recorded last April in police proceedings for similar events at Girona Airport.
As soon as the facts were established, the Moussos activated the child protection protocol and mobilized the General Directorate for Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescence, and the two minors who were in the hotel with the woman were actually transferred to one of the state’s reception centers.