Germany's new law yields first smuggling raids, seizing 9,000 life jackets and dinghies

Across warehouses in western Germany this spring, police seized thousands of life jackets and deflated dinghies — the physical infrastructure of a criminal trade that moves human beings across one of the world's most dangerous stretches of water. The raids mark the first use of a law Germany passed in December 2023, one born from international pressure and the recognition that a post-Brexit legal gap had quietly made the country a staging ground for Channel smuggling networks. It is a moment that reveals how borders, when redrawn on paper, can open unexpected corridors in the shadow economy —