Smugglers sell crossings on social media, recruit helpers online, and hide their profits across borders. The EU’s new centre against migrant smuggling wants to hit all three at once. On 1 October, lawmakers travelled to The Hague to see it at work, just as Parliament starts shaping a stronger Europol.

The centre works from inside Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, at its headquarters in The Hague. That is where a delegation from the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) arrived on 1 October. Committee chair Javier Zarzalejos (EPP/ESP) led the visit, joined by Murielle Laurent (S&D/FRA) and Fabienne Keller (Renew/FRA). The timing matters, because the agency’s future is now on the table in Brussels.

Parliament is preparing its position on a new Europol regulation, which the European Commission put forward in June 2026. The visit also follows an earlier reform that widened the agency’s mandate on migrant smuggling and human trafficking. That reform created the European Centre Against Migrant Smuggling (ECAMS), launched in March 2026, which was also a focus of the mission.

Connecting the dots across borders

ECAMS builds on the European Migrant Smuggling Centre, which Europol had run since 2016. It helps national authorities map and target criminal networks that operate across borders. Information about them often sits scattered across different countries and investigations, and the centre pulls it together.

It collects and analyses information from member states and Europol’s partners, then checks it against the agency’s own databases. The aim is to link people, organisations, routes, documents, communications, and financial transactions, and to identify the key figures in each network.

A growing share of the work now happens online. Smugglers use social media and online platforms to advertise their services, recruit facilitators, and organise journeys. ECAMS therefore expands Europol’s open-source intelligence, meaning information drawn from public sources such as websites and social media. It also coordinates DigiNeX, a network of digital investigators from national law enforcement agencies that monitors and analyses online activity linked to migrant smuggling.

The centre also follows the money. Migrant smuggling earns criminal networks an estimated €5bn a year, according to the Commission. Financial analysis shows how smugglers move and hide these profits. It can also reveal links to other forms of organised crime, including money laundering.

Beyond single smuggling routes

ECAMS also works in the field. Europol can send its experts to countries involved in an investigation. There they work directly with national authorities and match field data against information held at European level. The agency does not run police operations on its own. Instead, it gives national authorities intelligence, analysis, expertise, and coordination.

The new approach moves the focus from individual routes to the whole criminal network. Investigators track people, digital infrastructure, and money flows at the same time. Migrant smuggling remains a key EU priority in the fight against transnational organised crime.

During the visit, the MEPs also toured Europol’s operations centre, which runs around the clock. They looked at the agency’s work on financial crime, money laundering, cybercrime, and the criminal use of artificial intelligence.

As criminal networks grow more digital, more financially agile and more violent, the EU needs an agency that can keep up with them. — Javier Zarzalejos, chair of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee

Mr Zarzalejos said a stronger Europol needs adequate resources and a clear legal framework. It also needs safeguards for fundamental rights and data protection, as well as effective democratic oversight. “As criminal networks grow more digital, more financially agile and more violent, the EU needs an agency that can keep up with them,” he said. Work on the new regulation will therefore also shape the framework in which ECAMS can expand its fight against migrant smuggling. The next step comes on 9–10 November, when the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol, which brings together MEPs and national lawmakers, meets in Brussels.