“Even if you think you have impunity, you could end up in jail.”
A warning Petra Hoekstra, National Prosecutor from the Netherlands, delivers without hesitation. “If you commit these crimes, we as a community will get you.”
Behind those words is a prosecutor who has spent her career pursuing criminals.
When Petra entered the legal profession, she focused on juvenile justice. She believed that helping young people early could change the course of their lives. But over time, her work took her into a darker world: organized crime, where criminal networks operate across borders and victims can be thousands of miles away from those exploiting them.
One case in particular stands out in Petra’s life. She helped uncover a transnational criminal network that stretched from detention camps in Libya to victims’ families living in the Netherlands. What began as a small clue eventually became one of the largest investigations of its kind.
The first signs were suspicious phone calls from Libya to members of the Eritrean community.
Petra and her team soon discovered a horrifying reality. “We found out that Eritreans were being tortured in Libya, while their family members were being extorted in the Netherlands,” she explained
Smuggled migrants often become victims of extreme violence, human trafficking, extortion, rape, deprivation of liberty and other abuses on the way. Many lose their lives.
According to a new research brief by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in 2025 alone nearly 1800 people died or went missing on Mediterranean smuggling routes and more than 400 on the Sahara Desert land route to North Africa.
As evidence emerged, Dutch prosecutors joined forces with international partners and organizations to piece together the full criminal scheme.
Petra also found out that the perpetrator was hiding in the United Arab Emirates, but she had challenges in stablishing connection with the counterparts.
It was only after she had participated at the first UNODC International Forum of Prosecutors, held from 4-6 December 2024 in Vienna, Austria, where she met an Emirati prosecutor that help her make a breakthrough the case.
The investigation revealed a brutal business model. Migrants were promised passage to Europe, only to be detained in camps where food, water and sanitation were scarce. There, smugglers tortured them while calling relatives in Europe to extort money. Only after money was transferred were migrants allowed to continue their journey.
For Petra, the case demonstrated the power of international cooperation.
“Sometimes, you do not have to do everything alone,” she said. “Everybody can do their part, and if you sum those parts up, you have a great result.”
But building the case required more than gathering evidence. It required earning the trust of the victims. Many of them were reluctant to speak. Some feared retaliation; others doubted authorities could help them.
The silence was shaped by their trauma. Smugglers often use severe violence and torture to extort money from migrants.
“They [those migrants] would say: ‘Yes, I’ve heard of these things, but it never happened to me," Petra recalled.
Over time, with the support of cultural mediators, that silence began to break.
The turning point came when one person agreed to testify. Then many others followed. Most of the testimonies were devastating.
“We were always there [when the victims were making statements in court],” Petra said. "It's really difficult to hear what actually happened to them and see them collapse. Some people were not able to speak anymore.”
Eventually, the evidence led to a conviction. The perpetrator was sentenced to 20 years in prison for taking part in a criminal organization, smuggling and extortion.
For Petra, the verdict was about more than punishment. After the judgement, a member of the Eritrean community approached her. “He grabbed my hand and thanked me on behalf of everyone,” she recalled. “He brought food. I had tears in my eyes. It was incredible.”
The case sent a powerful legal precedent beyond the Netherlands. It proved that crimes committed across continents can still be traced, connected and prosecuted.
It showed that international cooperation can dismantle powerful organized crime networks.
And it reinforced the message Petra has spent her career delivering: “If you exploit vulnerable people for profit, no matter where you are, someone is looking for you.”Petra Hoekstra was also one of the participants of the second International Forum of Prosecutors countering human trafficking and migrant smuggling, organized by UNODC with financial support from the European Union (EU) under the project: Promoting Action and Cooperation among Countries at Global Level against Trafficking in Human Beings and the Smuggling of Migrants (PACTS).
