Friday 17, March
On Friday, there were 717 new Covid-19 infections reported in Berlin. The seven-day incidence currently stands at 52.2 cases per 100,000 people.
Human traffickers arrested in Berlin
On Wednesday morning, around 400 police officers carried out a large-scale raid of suspected human traffickers in Berlin and the city of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt.
Following an investigation of 18 suspects, more than 20 apartments and offices, mostly in Berlin, were searched. Five men have been arrested, one in Halle and four in Berlin.
The traffickers are being accused of trafficking at least 90 Turkish and Iraqi citizens into Germany through the so-called Balkan Route. Migrants are usually brought by plane from Istanbul to Sarajevo and Herzegovina in Bosnia. From there, they’re transported in cars across the German border.
