The AFP is reporting that Interpol has focused its sights on human smuggling rings that transport Iraqis to Europe and the United States.

International police body Interpol is probing criminal gangs exploiting Iraqis trying to flee to Europe or the US to escape war at home, a senior official said here Tuesday.

The agency began to collect data from its 186 member states after 11 Iraqis who were heading to the US with stolen passports from Cyprus were detained in Mexico last year, Interpol crime intelligence officer Ralph Markert told a news conference. “We want to detect the criminal networks who are behind this,” he said at Interpol’s annual general assembly in southern Morocco.

The report also highlighted the costs involved.

One recently smashed gang based in Madrid charged 8,000 euros (11,600 US dollars) for each Iraqi which it supplied with a passport and brought to the United States through Turkey, Greece, Spain and Mexico, said Markert.

An estimated two million Iraqis have fled the country because of the war, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.