INTERPOL and Europol announced Monday that the organizations broke up a migrant smuggling ring that brought migrants from Cuba to the European Union (EU). 62 arrests were made in cooperation with the governments of Germany, Greece, Northern Macedonia, Spain and Serbia.

The investigation into the smuggling ring began in October 2021 after several EU countries reported surges in Cuban migrants attempting to enter countries with falsified immigration documents. INTERPOL and Europol allege that the smugglers charged 9,000 euros to arrange for migrants to fly from Cuba to Serbia. Until recently, Serbia did not require a visa for Cuban nationals to enter the country. According to Europol, the migrants would travel to Greece or other countries after entering Serbia, with the smugglers’ assistance, to apply for asylum. INTERPOL estimates that 5,000 migrants from Cuba were smuggled into the EU this way at a profit of 45 million euros. Both Europol and INTERPOL stated that the migrants were previously brought to Russia, then crossed the Russian-Finnish border. However, the original route was disrupted due to the war in Ukraine.

Since 2021, there has been a large increase in Cuban immigration to the EU, particularly in Greece. In an October 2021 incident, 130 Cuban migrants attempted to fly from the Greek island of Zakynthos to Milan, Italy. The migrants were detained by Greek authorities and then asked to leave the country.

The movement toward the EU by Cuban asylum seekers and migrants comes as the previously popular destination, the US, has been placing restrictive policies on immigration and asylum. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) noted in 2022 that there has been a six-fold increase in Cuban applications for asylum since 2021, making Cuban asylum seekers the third largest group of asylum seekers. The increase in asylum seekers is likely due to Cuba’s economic situation, which has degraded since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The country has been suffering from devastating inflation, food shortages, an agricultural crash and a lack of financial liquidity. Cuban officials have blamed US sanctions for the dire economic circumstances.

Both INTERPOL and Europol have stated that there are more arrests to come as a result of this investigation.