Latest news with #peoplesmuggling
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Essex lorry deaths ringleader gets sentence increased
The ringleader of a people-smuggling operation has had his sentence extended after failing to pay compensation to the families of 39 people who lost their Vietnamese migrants died after suffocating inside an airtight container, found in Grays in Essex, in 23 October manager Ronan Hughes, 45, was ordered to pay their families £182,078.90 by a judge in January, as part of a compensation package. Folkstone Magistrates' Court heard he still owed £123,698 and a judge sentenced him to an additional year and four months in prison, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Eleven people were convicted in the UK in connection with the case, in which it was revealed the victims had paid significant sums of money for a "VIP" route into was jailed for a total of 20 years at the Old Bailey in February 2021, after pleading guilty to his part in the 39 was initially ordered to pay the families compensation of more than £180,000 in 2023. At a hearing in November, Hughes had argued that a property he had built on land belonging to his parents in Ireland was not an available asset for confiscation January, a judge at the Old Bailey in London decided it was and made the confiscation order of £182,078.90, to be paid in CPS said Hughes had paid £58,380 so Chalk, specialist prosecutor for the CPS, said: "Ronan Hughes led an unscrupulous network of organised criminals that sought to profit from smuggling desperate people. "It is devastating that 39 vulnerable people lost their lives because of their greed and recklessness." The Vietnamese men, women and children paid fees rising to £13,000 for what they believed to be a safe passage to the bodies were discovered after the container they were in was transported by ferry from Belgium to Purfleet on the Thames Estuary in the day of the discovery, Hughes left Thurrock and boarded a plane back to Ireland, police 20 April 2020, after a European Arrest Warrant was granted, Hughes was extradited to Essex. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The National
6 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Court backs citizenship ban for Afghan people smugglers
An Afghan people smuggler and his nephew who charged migrants £9,000 ($12,190) each to reach the UK have lost their appeal against being stripped of British citizenship. Judges have ruled that the Home Secretary was justified in depriving them of UK nationality on the basis that their people smuggling operation constituted serious organised crime. The penalty puts smuggling on a level with national security threats. The people smuggler and his nephew cannot be named for legal reasons and are referred to as D5 and D6 in court documents. Also involved in their criminal organisation was D6's brother, who is known as D7. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission agreed to strip D5 and D6 of UK citizenship and exclude D7 from Britain, after a hearing in 2023. They took their case to the Court of Appeal but judges Nicholas Green and Elisabeth Laing have now backed the SIAC decision. In their decision their said SIAC 'must take the same approach in cases' in which individuals 'have been deprived of their citizenship on the ground that they have been involved in and/or are likely to continue to be involved in SOC [Serious Organised Crime] as it must take in national security cases'. Priti Patel, who was home secretary at the time, was right to make the decision on the grounds that the presence of all three men was not 'conducive to the public good', the judges ruled. Claimed asylum SIAC was told that D5 first arrived in the UK from Afghanistan in 2001. He was joined by his nephew D6 in 2004 and both were eventually granted British citizenship after claiming asylum. D7 arrived clandestinely in 2007 and also given asylum after he claimed he faced persecution from the Taliban. He was given the right to remain in the UK permanently. They became involved in crime and began to attract the attention of the police, who in 2018 raided their homes where they found £12,000 in cash and 30 mobile phones. The National Crime Agency began an undercover operation involving two officers − codenamed George and Mark − posing as intercontinental lorry drivers who had fallen on hard times during the Covid pandemic. The officers met the brothers in a shop owned by one of them in February 2020 and struck up a conversation in which they told them how Covid was affecting their work. 'D6 ushered George out of the shop and then asked George if he knew anyone who could bring people back into the UK,' according to the three judges who presided over the SIAC hearing. Undercover sting George said that he did and they agreed to discuss it the following week and the two officers met the brothers at a petrol station in September during which D6 told George he wanted him to 'smuggle people from mainland Europe into the UK'. The pair made 'significant financial gain' from the smuggling and 'each migrant would pay some £8,000 to £9,000 to be brought into the country'. Many of those who were smuggled in were children who had been trafficked for the purpose of forced labour and were forced to work for D5. The uncle and nephew left for Kabul, but in the meantime the Home Office, at the request of the NCA, stripped them of their citizenship. D7 was also believed to be involved their operation and he was excluded from the UK while he was also out of the country. After being turned back from returning, D5 and D6 entered the UK clandestinely but were eventually arrested and brought to court. D6 is serving a 10-year sentence for people smuggling and helping his brother enter Britain illegally. His uncle, D5, was sentenced to five years in prison for entering illegally. D7 is believed to be in Finland.
Forbes
7 days ago
- Politics
- Forbes
U.K. Announces Random Sanctions Hoping To Reduce Irregular Migration
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) ... More (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) The government of the United Kingdom has announced a raft of financial sanctions and asset freezes against various individuals and entities it says are 'driving' irregular migration to Britain. It is the latest step in the Labour party government's attempts to reduce arrivals to the U.K., particularly those coming across the English channel by small boat from France. While the government is saying this move represents an 'innovative foreign policy approach" to deliver on its commitments to reduce irregular migration, it is unclear how this raft of sanctions will help, given the diffuse nature of smuggling networks and irregular migration. 'This is a landmark moment in the government's work to tackle organized immigration crime (and) reduce irregular migration to the U.K.' said Foreign Secretary David Lammy in the press release announcing the sanctions. In total, the government says it will sanction 25 individuals and entities 'at the heart of people-smuggling networks that drive irregular migration to the U.K.' These sanctions target various people and entities that are allegedly involved in the smuggling trade, including a Chinese company which makes boats roughly corresponding to those used by people to cross the channel, as well as various Balkan groups that allegedly make fake passports for irregular migrants. On the list as well are people allegedly involved in the informal 'Hawala' system of payments very common in developing countries, as well as the 'Tetwani Gang' who are referred to in the government's press release as 'known as one of the Balkan's most violent people.' Various other people and groups are listed for sanctions under headings such as 'Iraqi-linked people-smuggling," 'Gangland bosses,' and 'North African gangs operating in the Balkans." If the scattershot nature of these financial sanctions is confusing, it is better understood within the context of the pressure the Labour government is under to reduce irregular migration. The party, under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, campaigned heavily on a platform of reducing irregular arrivals to the U.K. Since coming to power in mid-2024, the government under Starmer has put a heavy emphasis on border security, detention and deportations. Nonetheless, they have faced significant electoral challenge from the far-right anti-immigration Reform Party. Facing challenge from Reform - and fearing that if they do not appear 'tough' enough on migration they will lose further electoral ground - the Starmer government has done its best to show it is taking the issue 'seriously.' In recent months, the government has announced a massive increase in deportation flights of rejected asylum seekers - despite concerns raised by legal and human rights advocates. It has also announced it is considering leveraging visa policy arrangements to get poorer countries to accept more deportations of their nationals. None of this seems to have shifted the needle. Nonetheless, with this latest raft of sanctions, it seems the Labour government is doubling down on the strategy, isolating what various people and groups it can find to show the British public it is serious about reducing irregular migration - even if this rag-tag group of entities being denied access to the U.K. banking system probably won't quite 'stop the boats.'
The National
23-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
UK sanctions Iraqis in crackdown on people smuggling
Criminals linked to Iraq are among the first to be placed under sanctions for their part in the people-smuggling industry. The sanctions are the first of a new set of measures to be imposed by the UK as part of a global crackdown on people smuggling aimed at stopping the flow of migrants across the English Channel in small boats. Those involved in the illegal trade in Europe, the Middle East and beyond face having their assets frozen and being banned from travelling to the UK. Among the 25 people named by the Foreign Office are nine with links to Iraq, who have had sanctions imposed for their part in equipping and financing the multibillion-dollar people-smuggling business. Their activities include supplying small boats solely for people smuggling, sourcing fake passports and facilitating illicit payments. They include Muhammed Khadir Pirot, who controls payments from people being smuggled from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region to Europe via Turkey using the Hawala system of shadow banking. Also sanctioned are Mariwan Jamal, who controls money movements through a Hawala banker, who handles payments to people smugglers from migrants in Iraq. Rafiq Shaqlaway, involved in hawala banking as an adviser to migrants looking to pay smugglers operating routes into Europe via Turkey, has also been sanctioned. Other Iraqis sanctioned over their involvement in the movement of migrants include Goran Assad Jalal, who was part of an organised crime group which carried migrants in refrigerated lorries from France to the UK at least 10 times between January and March 2019. Hemin Ali Salih helped smuggle migrants into the UK in the backs of lorries. Dedawan Dazey runs safe houses for migrants in northern France before they are smuggled to the UK. Roman Ranyaye, an Iraqi people-smuggler, is responsible for the smuggling of migrants from Asia to Europe. Azad Khoshnaw, Nuzad Khoshnaw and Nihad Mohsin Xoshnaw, all from Iraq, have been sanctioned for their part in supplying boats, engines and other maritime equipment for the flimsy boats used to transport migrants. Foreign Secretary David Lammy first announced back in January that the UK would become the first country to bring in a sanctions regime targeting organised immigration and irregular migration. 'This is a landmark moment in the government's work to tackle organised immigration crime, reducing irregular migration to the UK," he said. 'From Europe to Asia, we are taking the fight to the people smugglers who enable irregular migration, targeting them wherever they are in the world and making them pay for their actions. 'My message to the gangs who callously risk vulnerable lives for profit is this – we know who you are, and we will work with our partners around the world to hold you to account. Others sanctioned include Alen Basil, a former police translator who the Foreign Office says went on to lead a large smuggling network in Serbia, terrorising refugees, with the aid of corrupt policemen. Basil, reportedly a Syrian-Serb, was found to be living in a house in Serbia worth more than €1 million ($1.17 million), bought with money extorted from countless desperate migrants. Also sanctioned is Mohammed Tetwani, the self-styled 'King of Horgos', who brutally oversaw a migrant camp in Horgos, Serbia and led the Tetwani people-smuggling gang. Tetwani and his followers are known for their violent treatment of refugees who decline their services or cannot pay for them. The North African gang has also been sanctioned. Another North African network, the Kazawi Gang, which controls people-smuggling routes from North Africa into the EU, has also been sanctioned. The gang is known to deal out harsh punishments to migrants who are unable to pay, according to the UK Foreign Office. Sanctions have also been brought against a company in China that advertised its small boats on an online marketplace explicitly for the purpose of people smuggling. The boats advertised are of the type often used by criminal gangs in which migrants are packed, before being sent across the English Channel at huge risk to those on board.
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Gang leaders among first to be hit by small boat sanctions
Gang leaders and small boat suppliers are among the first 25 targets to have their UK assets frozen in an effort to combat migrants crossing the suspected criminals are also banned from travelling to the UK, after they were the first to be hit by a wave of new sanctions targeting list includes Albanian Bledar Lala, linked to smuggling migrants from Belgium, and Alen Basil, a former police translator now said to be running a people-trafficking network from Secretary David Lammy described the move as a "landmark moment" but experts said the impact was likely to be limited given the scale of smuggling networks. UK investigators can now seize the British assets of sanctioned individuals and groups, while firms in Britain must cut any financial ties with the targets is a Chinese company, Weihai Yamar Outdoors Product Co, accused of manufacturing inflatable boats being advertised for a statement, Lammy said: "From Europe to Asia we are taking the fight to the people-smugglers who enable irregular migration, targeting them wherever they are in the world and making them pay for their actions."My message to the gangs who callously risk vulnerable lives for profit is this: we know who you are, and we will work with our partners around the world to hold you to account."But Oxford University's Migration Observatory said the impact could be director Dr Madeleine Sumption said she would be "surprised" if the sanctions were the "game changer" to end small boat crossings."There are so many people involved in the industry that targeting people individually is probably only going to have an impact around the margins," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on added: "The impact is dependent to an extent on the co-operation of other countries where smugglers are operating." Since coming to power in July last year, Labour has announced a series of measures to tackle people-smuggling, including a new criminal offence of endangering the lives of others at sea. Legislation going through Parliament sets out plans to use counter-terror powers against people-smugglers - with suspects facing travel bans, social-media blackouts and phone the latest figures show 2025 has already set a new record for small boat than 21,000 people have made the dangerous crossing so far this year - a 56% increase on the same period in 2024. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
