A new policy paper by Agenfor International (INTERCEPTED’S consortium member) and TJPS Institute -UPEACE argues that Europe’s Common Operational Partnerships (COPs), the EU’s main framework for cross-border cooperation against human trafficking and migrant smuggling, need a structural overhaul to keep pace with how these crimes actually unfold today.

Authored by Sergio Bianchi and Natalina Cea, the paper points out that COPs have generated real value through liaison work, training, and cross-border information exchange, but remain structurally limited because they largely reproduce a police-to-police model of sharing information. The problem, the authors note, is that the earliest signs of trafficking rarely surface within law enforcements first- they are spotted by shelters, labour unions, cultural mediators, platform operators, banks, and local administrative bodies long before a criminal case exists.

To close that gap, the paper proposes a new “pre-investigative layer” modelled on the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) system used against money laundering- Under this approach, NGOs and other non-police actors wouldn’t investigate or act as police but could lawfully flags structured risk indicators, red-flag reports, and preserved OSINT material, which public authorities would then validate, prioritise, and act on.

The paper draws on lessons from the EU-funded UNCHAINED, OSINT-RADAR and INTERCEPTED projects, which tested THB indicator methodologies in practice. It cites the Eurojust ICC guidelines for civil-society documentation as a procedural template for keeping this cooperation lawful, victim-sensitive and auditable. Download the full paper, “Reframing European Common Operational Partnerships against THB and Migrant Smuggling,”: https://intercepted-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Policy-Document-Reframing-European-Common-Operational-Partnerships-against-THB-and-Migrant-Smuggling-1.pdf