Barcelona Airport staff arrested for smuggling dozens of migrants into Spain

Five restaurant employees and a maintenance worker at Barcelona Airport have been arrested for their involvement in helping migrants enter and stay in the Schengen area without going through border controls at the airport.

According to law enforcement officials, dozens of migrants were able to enter Spain illegally using this scheme, which aimed to disguise them as authorized airport personnel, as reported by SchengenVisaInfo.com.

Detectives have stated that the migrants paid significant sums to the criminal group to be smuggled into Spain and gain access to the borderless Schengen zone. The main suspects in the case were a couple who managed a restaurant in Terminal 1 of Barcelona Airport, serving travellers for over a decade.

The five individuals arrested are facing charges related to approximately 20 separate crimes, primarily involving irregular migration. Investigators believe that the operation's scope may have been more extensive than initially thought.

The migrants involved knew that they couldn't obtain the necessary documents, such as valid visas, to enter Spain legally. The detainees provided them with airport employee cards before they arrived, enabling them to impersonate workers and leave the international transit area without passing through any border checkpoints.

The National Police spokesperson in Barcelona explained that the gang played a crucial role in assisting the migrants, even accompanying them through restricted corridors meant exclusively for airport personnel. Additionally, the suspects provided the migrants with uniforms and clothing hidden in restrooms, allowing them to disguise themselves as airport employees.

Spain has experienced a significant influx of migrants, particularly in 2018 when arrivals doubled to 57,000, while the number of arrivals in the EU hit a record low for a five-year period.

In 2020, the second-highest number of sea arrivals in two decades was recorded. This increase was partially due to a sharp drop in arrivals from Morocco following the Spanish government's response to a crisis after the Melilla fence tragedy in the previous year.

Migration routes are constantly changing, and if the route through Tunisia becomes more complicated, dangerous, and expensive, more migrants may seek to enter Europe via Morocco, according to Camille Le Coz, Associate Director at the Migration Policy Institute Europe.