Latest news with #peoplesmuggling
Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Times
‘People smuggler' re-enters UK despite being stripped of citizenship
An asylum seeker who was granted UK nationality but was later stripped of his citizenship over his alleged links to a prolific people-smuggling ring has managed to return to the country using his British passport. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is thought to have been on holiday in Iraq when he was served with a citizenship deprivation order by the Home Office because of his suspected involvement in 'serious organised crime'. Yet he was somehow allowed to re-enter Britain and is now contesting his removal on human rights grounds because he has a wife and children here. The alleged people smuggler has been granted anonymity by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), the secretive court where he is appealing against the decision to strip him of British citizenship. He is referred to only as 'G5'.
Arab News
20-05-2025
- Arab News
A London court sentences an Egyptian man to 25 years for smuggling people from Africa to Italy
LONDON: A London court on Tuesday sentenced an Egyptian man to 25 years in prison for smuggling people from North Africa to Italy. Ahmed Ebid, who arrived in the UK in October 2022 after crossing the English Channel in a small boat, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. Judge Adam Hiddleston said Ebid played a key role in an organized crime group and that his 'primary motivation was to make money' from human trafficking. Ahmed Ramadan Mohamad Ebid, 42, assisted a multi-million-pound people-smuggling operation from his home in London. Today he has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. Read more — Crown Prosecution Service (@CPSUK) May 20, 2025 Since his arrival in Britain and until June 2023, Ebid, 42, was implicated in at least seven separate boat crossings as part of a 12 million-pound ($16 million) operation that carried 3,781 people, including children, into Italian waters from North Africa. Britain's National Crime Agency cited some of those who had entered the UK illegally as saying that Ebid even told an associate to kill and throw into the sea anyone onboard caught with a mobile phone. Ebid 'preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats,' said Jacque Beer of the agency. In one crossing, on Oct. 25, 2022, more than 640 people were rescued by the Italian authorities after they attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a wooden boat, the agency said. The boat was taken into port in Sicily and two bodies were recovered. 'Vulnerable people were transported on long sea journeys in ill-equipped fishing vessels completely unsuitable for carrying the large number of passengers,' said Tim Burton, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service. 'His repeated involvement in helping to facilitate these dangerous crossings showed a complete disregard for the safety of thousands of people, whose lives were put at serious risk,' Burton added about Ebid.
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Daily Mail
After being exposed by the Mail on Sunday... Ruthless people-smuggler who sneaked into Britain is jailed
A ruthless people-smuggler who was walking London 's streets despite being kicked out of the UK has been jailed after The Mail on Sunday exposed his return. Alket Dauti, 38, led a vile gang that smuggled hundreds of illegal migrants from Belgium inside refrigerated lorries, masterminding the operation from his British base. The group, comprising Dauti and his cousins, even wrapped migrants' hands and feet – some of whom were children – in plastic bags so as not to leave any traces in the lorries. Dauti has been sentenced to eight months in prison after the MoS told the authorities he had illegally returned to the UK. But the gangster will not automatically be sent back to his native Albania after his term ends, despite being a twice-convicted criminal. The court heard Dauti is expected to ask to stay in the UK after his sentence is over and may submit an application while in prison. He is estimated to have made hundreds of thousands of pounds from the smuggling racket by charging migrants £13,000 for a seat in the front of a lorry or £8,000 in the back. He came to the UK in 2009 and was first arrested by the National Crime Agency nine years later. He was extradited to Belgium where he had already been sentenced for ten years and fined £625,000 in absentia. But the crime boss served only half of this term before he was deported to Albania last year, and then illegally returned to the UK. Officials were unaware Dauti was living with his family in this country until the MoS tipped them off. He brazenly posted photos of himself in London on social media, while relatives uploaded images of him taking his two daughters to school. Dauti was arrested in Penge, south-east London, a week after this newspaper's exposé in March. After pleading guilty to entering the UK without leave, he appeared at Woolwich Crown Court via video link from HMP Thameside. The court heard Dauti 'gravitated' towards the UK last year as his wife and two children lived in London. Police still do not know how he arrived, but Dauti told the MoS in March he flew from Albania to Luton Airport on a Wizz Air flight. On his plan to apply to stay in the UK, Recorder David Etherington KC said: 'You have grounds to apply to come here because of your wife and children being in the UK. 'I've read the moving letter from your wife. Unfortunately, I cannot ignore the fact you came here illegally.' A Home Office official will visit Dauti in prison to determine if he can submit such an application.
The Independent
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Flagship immigration reforms closer to law following MPs' vote of support
Flagship immigration reforms which propose to equip the Government with the tools to 'identify, disrupt and dismantle' criminal gangs, have moved a step closer to becoming law. MPs voted 316 to 95, majority 221 at third reading in support of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. The legislation aims to introduce new offences and counter-terror-style powers to tackle people smugglers bringing migrants across the English Channel. People selling and handling boat parts suspected of being used in migrant Channel crossings could face up to 14 years in prison and the Government wants to make it an offence to endanger another life during sea crossings to the UK. Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle said the Bill would also extend right-to-work checks to workers seeking casual or temporary contracts, or individual sub-contractors and online matching services, as a result of a Government amendment. In addition, the Bill would repeal previous asylum legislation introduced by the Conservatives, including the scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Speaking at third reading, Dame Angela told the Commons: 'People smuggling is a complex and multi-faceted problem. There are not quick or easy solutions to prevent it. 'Anyone who claims that there are easy answers is a snake oil salesman, but it is possible to identify, disrupt and dismantle the criminal gangs and strengthen the security of our borders with international diplomacy and operational cooperation.' At report stage, shadow home secretary Chris Philp tabled an amendment designed to disapply the Human Rights Act and interim measures of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the Bill and to other legislation about borders, asylum and immigration. On his new clause 14, Mr Philp said the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is 'vaguely worded', adding: 'The problem is over the years judges have expanded their interpretation of those in ever more extraordinary ways that frankly defy common sense.' Dame Angela said she feared arbitrary treatment 'could become the norm' without the ECHR. This was in response to Lee Anderson, the Reform UK MP for Ashfield, who said migrants arriving in England on Monday 'could get up to all sorts of mischief, commit crimes and maybe even acts of terrorism'. MPs voted voted 402 to 98, majority 304, to reject the Conservatives' amendment. A Conservative amendment which proposed an annual cap on the number of immigrants entering the UK was also rejected by MPs, with 94 in favour, 315 against, majority 221. Speaking in support of an immigration cap, Mr Philp said: 'Never again would we see immigration rise to levels far higher than anyone intended, we wouldn't ever again see unintended consequences where visa rules are set up but it turns out the numbers are much higher.' The shadow minister also called for age verification tests for migrants, as he claimed 'men with beards have ended up in schools with teenage girls'. Labour MP Nadia Whittome described existing figures on English Channel crossing deaths as 'murky' as she proposed her new clause 1, which would require the Home Office to publish quarterly statistics and information on deaths in the asylum system and in small boat channel crossings. The Nottingham East MP told the Commons: 'People are drowning while trying to reach safety. 'Once they arrive, they are dying by suicide, from infectious diseases and unknown causes, in poverty, in low-quality accommodation or on the streets, like the teenage victim of modern slavery who took his own life while terrified of deportation, or the father-of-one who died of diphtheria after being held in a Government processing centre, or the seven-year-old girl crushed to death on an overcrowded boat.' Ms Whittome later added: 'The Government rightly wants to reduce deaths in the Channel. The starting point must be to know the numbers.' Labour MP Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) also spoke in favour of this amendment, saying: 'Currently we know that lives are being lost but we don't know how many.' Liberal Democrat home affairs spokeswoman Lisa Smart spoke in favour of her party's amendment new clause 21, which would allow asylum seekers to take up employment if they have been waiting more than three months for a decision on their application. Dame Angela said the Government is 'worried that if right-to-work comes in after three months, that will be too much of a pull factor'. She added: 'We have to have a system that people apply to properly, rather than can get around by coming in with by irregular routes.' The Liberal Democrats' amendment was defeated by 404 votes to 87, majority 317. The SNP's new clause three, which would have required the Government to publish a strategy on safe and managed routes for asylum seekers, was rejected by 318 votes to 90, majority 228. The division list showed Labour MPs Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington), Olivia Blake (Sheffield Hallam), Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) and Ms Whittome voted in favour of the amendment.
