A significant cross-border network that trafficked migrants into the UK was destroyed by police in five European nations on Wednesday, resulting in the arrest of a 26-year-old Iranian-Kurdish people trafficker and 38 members of his gang.
Five additional people smugglers were also detained in Britain along with the gang’s head. 18 gang members were detained by German police, nine by French police, and six by Dutch police.
More than 1,200 life jackets, about 150 rubber boats, 50 motors, tens of thousands of euros in cash, weapons, and drugs were also seized by the police.
According to the EU law enforcement organization Europol, the trafficking ring may have smuggled up to 10,000 illegal immigrants into Britain over the course of the previous 1.5 years, earning up to €15 million. The group, according to police officials, was one of the busiest criminal organizations smuggling individuals in small boats from France and Belgium to Britain.
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“This is the most significant operation ever mounted against smuggling operations across the English Channel, especially with this phenomenon of small boats,” Europol deputy executive director Jean-Philippe Lecouffe said.
In the past year, more than 28,500 migrants entered England illegally, largely from the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan after traveling across the Channel in frequently weak and hazardous vessels.
“Given the number of boats we seized yesterday … we can expect a fall in the number of crossings in the immediate future,” Matt Rivers of the UK National Crime Agency said.
The British government intends to begin sending some of the unauthorized immigrants to Rwanda, but legal obstacles are preventing that from happening despite strong opposition both domestically and abroad.
