Latest news with #migrantCrisis
Sky News
3 days ago
- General
- Sky News
Suspected gang who 'helped hundreds of migrants enter UK illegally' arrested in raids across England
A suspected criminal gang accused of helping more than 200 migrants from Botswana enter the UK illegally over a two-year period has been targeted in a series of raids. Six people were arrested across England on Tuesday morning, with the lead suspect, a 37-year-old Botswana national, detained in Cheltenham. Four other men and one woman, aged between 33 and 50, were also arrested in Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Bradford. The suspected gang is alleged to have helped migrants use fake documents to submit asylum claims and gain employment in care homes without adequate training. The Home Office said intelligence suggested the suspected lead smuggler lured people here under false pretences and forced them to do unpaid work. The "scale of the threat" meant this was one of the government's highest priority investigations, according to Phillip Parr, an inspector with the Immigration Enforcement's criminal and financial investigation unit. Mr Parr said there was "no place for those who profit from human misery" and the operation safeguarded potentially hundreds of people from further exploitation. The raids are part of the government's latest efforts to tackle people smuggling gangs and stop small boat crossings. The Home Office said almost 30,000 people have been returned since the election last July - 12% more than the same period last year. However, so far this year a record 13,617 people have crossed the Channel in small boats, compared with 10,775 for the same period last year, and more than previous comparable years. On Saturday, 1,195 people made the crossing, the highest figure so far for 2025. 2:36 Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips this weekend, Defence Secretary John Healey said Britain had "lost control of its borders over the last five years". The government said it was tightening UK visa controls and reducing reliance on overseas workers. Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said Tuesday's raids demonstrate the UK "will use the full force of the law against those who facilitate illegal entry into the UK for exploitation".
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The French are the true enemy
Ecoutez! The annual summer surge in Channel crossings is upon us, and with it, some interesting sights and sounds. Stand on the Kent coast and stare out to sea, and you may well spot the RNLI 'taxi service' bringing in another boat load of migrants. Put a shell to your ear and you will hear the sound of the French authorities doing absolutely nothing. As the number of asylum seekers making the crossing reaches almost 1,200 in a single day, our Prime Minister seems unable to do anything more than parrot the same empty words about 'smashing vile people-smuggling gangs.' As a strategy, it is hopelessly misconceived, for as long there's money to be made from the trade, new people traffickers will spring up to fill any gap. How about Sir Keir Starmer declares war on a much easier target – namely the French? Having spent the last month prostrating himself to Brussels in the name of 'resetting' the UK's relationship with the EU, the last thing that Starmer will want is a diplomatic row with our neighbours. However, as the gendarmes stand idly by on the beaches of Dunkirk, watching hundreds of migrants board boats with a giant Gallic shrug, it is time for the Prime Minister to face facts. So far from being our allies, the French are perilously close to becoming the enemy in this fight. During his premiership, Rishi Sunak dramatically increased the amount of money we throw at the French to help us deal with the crisis, announcing a £500 million deal with president Emmanuel Macron. The cash, to be paid over three years, was earmarked for 500 extra French police officers and a new detention centre. Naturally, the French lapped it up as eagerly as onion soup. More than two years later, what is there to show for this colossal investment? The square root of rien. To the surprise of absolutely no-one, the £12.5 million detention centre, which was supposed to be operational by the end of 2026, is already a year behind schedule. Given French labour laws and general lackadaisical attitudes to work, Starmer will be lucky if he is still in Number 10 when it finally opens. In the meantime, the French aren't even doing the small stuff. Gendarmes seem curiously reluctant to disable dinghies even when there are no migrants or people smugglers in the vicinity of the boats. It would take no more than a few minutes to puncture the vessels that are regularly (and very obviously) moored along the River Aa, which leads to the French Channel, yet patrol cars have been filmed gaily driving by. If that is too adventurous, how about erecting some simple fences? Sure, there is a long coastline to patrol, but those familiar with key departure points say physical barriers would make a big difference at certain hotspots. If the Americans can put up more than 1,000 miles of forbidding barbed wire fences, sensors, cameras and other surveillance equipment along the US-Mexico border, surely the French could come up with the odd crash barrier? Yesterday a French politician blamed us for this unholy mess, citing our 'very weak asylum policy.' Eleonore Caroit also suggested that if we want to stop migrants abusing our generosity, we stop rolling out the red carpet in the form of lavish accommodation and benefits. She is absolutely right – but it would be spectacularly helpful if her compatriots also stopped taking us for a ride.
Globe and Mail
28-05-2025
- General
- Globe and Mail
Two men convicted after migrants froze to death on Canada-U.S. border face sentencing today
Two men are to be sentenced today for their role in a human smuggling operation that saw a family of four freeze to death on the Canada-U.S. border south of Winnipeg. Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand were convicted last fall on four charges related to bringing people illegally into the United States and transporting them. Court was told during one operation in January of 2022, a couple from India and their two children were left to walk across the border in an overnight blizzard on the bald prairie, as temperatures dropped below –20 C. Prosecutors say Patel organized the logistics while Shand would pick up migrants on the U.S. side in rented vehicles and drive them to cities such as Chicago. Prosecutors in Minnesota are seeking prison sentences of a little more than 19 years for Patel and 10 years for Shand. Shand's lawyer is seeking just over two years for his client, while Patel's lawyer has asked for a sentence below the normal guidelines due to Patel's circumstances and life history. The men's trial last year heard they were involved in several smuggling trips between Manitoba and Minnesota in December 2021 and January 2022, in which people from India were brought to Canada on student visas then sent on foot across the border to the U.S. The trial heard details of the deadly cold faced by a group of migrants the day Shand was arrested in a van on a remote road just south of the border. The temperature was –23 C and the wind chill dipped below –35. One migrant who survived the trek testified the group was driven to an area in Manitoba near the border and told to walk in a straight line in the dark, snowy night until they came to a van on the U.S. side. They were dressed in hats, jackets, gloves and boots designed for mild weather. The group got separated in the driving snow. Some made it to Shand's van after walking for hours, including one whose hypothermia was so bad she was flown to Minneapolis for treatment. Hours after that, the frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben Patel, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, were found in a field in Manitoba just metres from the border. They were dressed in jeans and light jackets, and the boy's body was still in his father's arms. Vaishaliben Patel's body was found away from the rest of the family, up against a chain-link fence near an unmanned natural gas facility. Prosecutors said it appears she had left her family to try to find help at the only building in sight that night. Patel is a common name in India, and the family was not related to the accused. Shand's lawyers said he was simply a taxi driver who was offered money by Harshkumar Patel to pick people up in different locations and was unaware he was doing anything wrong until the day of his arrest. Patel's lawyers said their client was misidentified. Patel was only arrested last year, and his lawyers said that, unlike Shand, there is no evidence he was near the border. A jury found the men guilty on all the charges they faced. After the verdict, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said it was a case of 'unthinkable cruelty' in which the men valued money more than people's lives.
National Post
28-05-2025
- General
- National Post
Two men convicted after migrants froze to death on Canada-U.S. border face sentencing
Two men are to be sentenced today for their role in a human smuggling operation that saw a family of four freeze to death on the Canada-U.S. border south of Winnipeg. Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand were convicted last fall on four charges related to bringing people illegally into the United States and transporting them. Article content Court was told during one operation in January of 2022, a couple from India and their two children were left to walk across the border in an overnight blizzard on the bald prairie, as temperatures dropped below -20 C. Article content Shand's lawyer is seeking just over two years for his client, while Patel's lawyer has asked for a sentence below the normal guidelines due to Patel's circumstances and life history. Article content Article content The men's trial last year heard they were involved in several smuggling trips between Manitoba and Minnesota in December 2021 and January 2022, in which people from India were brought to Canada on student visas then sent on foot across the border to the U.S. Article content The trial heard details of the deadly cold faced by a group of migrants the day Shand was arrested in a van on a remote road just south of the border. Article content Article content The temperature was -23 C and the wind chill dipped below -35. Article content Article content One migrant who survived the trek testified the group was driven to an area in Manitoba near the border and told to walk in a straight line in the dark, snowy night until they came to a van on the U.S. side. They were dressed in hats, jackets, gloves and boots designed for mild weather. Article content The group got separated in the driving snow. Some made it to Shand's van after walking for hours, including one whose hypothermia was so bad she was flown to Minneapolis for treatment. Article content Hours after that, the frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben Patel, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, were found in a field in Manitoba just metres from the border. They were dressed in jeans and light jackets, and the boy's body was still in his father's arms. Article content Vaishaliben Patel's body was found away from the rest of the family, up against a chain-link fence near an unmanned natural gas facility. Prosecutors said it appears she had left her family to try to find help at the only building in sight that night.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
The small boats kingpin who smuggled 3,800 migrants into Europe
A quiet and leafy street in Isleworth doesn't immediately spring to mind as the obvious place to find a control centre for an international people-smuggling enterprise. But in a taxpayer-funded home shared with his wife and child, that's where Ahmed Ebid helped mastermind at least seven crossings over perilous waters around Europe, involving thousands of people and resulting in at least two deaths. 'Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, threw in the sea,' Ebid told one of his associates when discussing arrangements for bringing migrants by boat from north Africa to Europe on one of the dangerous illegal crossings. His threat indicates the level of compassion he had for those whose passage he was helping to assist. It was one of multiple crossings that Ebid played a part in arranging from his flat in west London. He didn't know that on this occasion, his conversation was being recorded. Surveillance officers from Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) were on his trail by then. Law enforcement was closing in and Ebid, 42, who had entered the UK illegally himself on a small boat, would soon be caught. But not before he had helped smuggle thousands of desperate migrants into Italian waters as part of a network of criminals making millions from the perilous scheme. This week, he was jailed for 25 years for masterminding the smuggling of thousands of people across the Mediterranean into Europe. He had held, said Judge Adam Hiddleston, a 'significant managerial role within an organised crime group'. The treatment of the migrants, on his orders and in his name, was 'horrifying', said Judge Hiddleston. 'They were simply a commodity to you,' he told Ebid. 'You talked of them in terms of units, not as people, referring to them as 'cartons'.' It is believed that Ebid, an Egyptian, crossed the Channel with his wife and child when he came to Britain in October 2022. He moved into an address on Church Road, Isleworth. It was this unlikely base where he worked with people-smuggling networks in north Africa to organise transport across a stretch of water almost 3,000 miles away. But having previously worked as a fisherman in the Mediterranean, Ebid had what a prosecutor later described as 'intimate knowledge' of those waters, allowing him to assist with the illegal scheme even by phone from a long distance away. He apparently knew how it should be done, not only telling an associate that migrants must not carry phones on the boats but also advising on how much drinking water the passengers would require during the crossings. He had been in the UK for only a few weeks when he started assisting in the illegal journeys of other migrants across the Mediterranean. More than 640 of them were rescued by Italian authorities after attempting to cross the sea from Libya in a wooden boat in October 2022. The vessel was taken into port in Sicily and two bodies were recovered. In December that year, 265 migrants who had departed from Benghazi in Libya in a 65ft fishing boat were found adrift in the Mediterranean and rescued by the Italian coastguard. The following April, two further search-and-rescue operations were mounted after distress calls were made to the Italian coastguard. In both cases, boats were found with more than 600 migrants on board. There is evidence that between 2022 and 2023, Ebid was involved in at least seven separate crossings, carrying a total of almost 3,800 people into Italian waters. Some of them eventually made their way to Britain. He played a part in moving and accommodating migrants before their journey by sea, and in dealing with paperwork, he would later admit. He was also in regular phone contact with associates on the boats as they made the crossings, prosecutor Freddy Hookway told a judge at Southwark Crown Court in March. Ebid, he said, appeared to be providing assistance in real time. In an effort to go below the radar, he spoke in code about 'fishing' and referred to the boats as 'cars'. The NCA described them more accurately as 'death traps'. At least some of the migrants who paid to make these crossings had started their journey in Egypt, according to Italian media reports. From there they travelled to the Libyan coast, their departure point for Italy. Working from home in Britain, Ebid managed the logistics and communications required for the crossings, including the transfer of the migrants from Egypt, Il Giornale reported. He is said to have played a 'vital' role in the smuggling operation. It was a risky business but a highly lucrative one. Each migrant was charged about £3,200 on average, netting more than £12 million in total for the criminals involved. Ebid was said to have claimed he made €15,000 (almost £12,650) for his part in it. Prosecutors believe the true sum was far higher, with Ebid describing it as 'a living'. It apparently wasn't his first involvement in criminal activity. He reportedly had a previous conviction in Italy in 2017 for attempting to import more than a ton of cannabis. On the afternoon of June 21 2023, NCA officers swooped in London. Dressed in white T-shirt, grey shorts and sunglasses, Ebid was arrested in the street in Hounslow on suspicion of assisting unlawful immigration. He was charged last year with people-smuggling offences as part of an international investigation into the organised crime network that was moving migrants into Europe. The probe also involved Italian prosecutors, coastguard and the Guardia di Finanza, an Italian law enforcement agency. Credit: National Crime Agency Investigators had bugged Ebid's home. When they seized a phone from him after his arrest, they found images of boats, conversations about the possible purchase of vessels, videos of migrants making the journey and screenshots detailing money transfers. They also found a notebook Ebid had, with pages of co-ordinates showing a route from north Africa to the southern coast of Italy. In October 2023, he pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to assist illegal immigration. But he claimed he was merely a low-ranking member of the network. Prosecutors disputed this. He was a key figure, they argued. One who 'preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats', as Jacque Beer, the NCA's regional head of investigation, put it. Ebid's case highlights the international nature of the problem of criminal networks cashing in by orchestrating hazardous small-boat crossings for migrants hoping to reach Western Europe. The trafficking of people from the Libyan coast to Italy has been going on for many years, despite various crackdowns designed to prevent the journeys. A European Commission report after a mission to Libya at the end of 2004 found that about 15,000 migrants had tried to reach the Italian coast illegally by crossing the Mediterranean. Almost 2,000 had died during the journey. In 2010, Italy and Libya reached an agreement to try to curb irregular immigration and the numbers attempting the crossing declined. But that wasn't the end of it. In 2023, an estimated 212,000 migrants and refugees attempted to cross the central Mediterranean Sea from Libya, Algeria and Tunisia to Europe, according to a report by the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organisation for Migration – a 52 per cent increase compared with 2022. More than 3,105 perished or went missing at sea while trying to make the journey in 2023, compared with 2,500 the previous year. 'However, the real number of dead and missing along these routes is believed to be higher as many incidents go unreported or undetected,' said the report. The nature of the business run by figures such as Ebid is one that not only breaches immigration laws but endangers lives for financial gain, as Tim Burton, the special prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, noted this week. In Ebid's case, he 'showed a complete disregard for the safety of thousands of people, whose lives were put at serious risk', said Burton. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer came to power last year with a promise to 'smash the gangs' responsible for people smuggling, and welcomed the jailing of Ebid. In reality, smashing the gangs isn't all that easy, as the ringleaders tend to base themselves overseas. Smashing Ebid's operation is a start. The challenge will be in tracking down and bringing to justice others like him out there. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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