Operational teams deployed to countries neighbouring Ukraine

Europol has deployed operational teams to the frontline European countries neighbouring Ukraine within the framework of the agency’s response to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The operational teams in Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova, as well as an upcoming deployment planned to Hungary, consist of Europol specialists and guest officers to help support the national authorities with secondary security checks and investigations at the European external borders to identify criminals and terrorists trying to enter the EU in the refugee flow and exploit the situation.

These secondary security checks are an important tool to manage the large incoming influx of refugees fleeing Ukraine. Europol previously carried out such a service at the request of EU Member States in the migration hotspots in the Mediterranean as of 2016.