British court sentences people smuggler to 10 years in prison

The migrants were discovered in February when crew members on a ship between Dieppe and Newhaven heard pleas from the bus. (PA/AP Photo)

LONDON: A British court on Friday sentenced a bus driver to 10 years in prison for smuggling migrants into a secret compartment where they were found screaming for help after being deprived of oxygen.

Anas al-Mustafa, 43, originally from Syria, was found guilty in August of assisting illegal migration by smuggling seven people in a specially adapted van.

The six men and one woman were found crammed into an overheated, concealed space no larger than “the width of a human chest.”

They were discovered last February when crew members on a ship travelling from Dieppe in northern France to Newhaven on the south coast of England heard pleas from the bus.

They used an axe to free the migrants by breaking down the fake partition wall.

By the time they were rescued, two were unconscious. None of the migrants had been provided with water, the court was told.

Prosecutors said the younger migrants recovered from dehydration, but one man may have suffered a heart attack, the woman suffered acute kidney injury and another man was taken to hospital in a coma and suffered a stroke.

“Desperate people are willing to risk their lives to come to the UK, often with tragic consequences,” Judge Christine Laing said. “They are exploited by those who profit from this trade with little regard for their safety.”

‘Evil’

Angela Eagle, minister for border security and asylum, said the case underlined the need to dismantle smuggling rings.

“This evil criminal has risked the lives of seven people for money. It is a miracle they are still alive, given the conditions in which they have been held,” the woman said in a statement.

Immigration was a key issue in July’s general election, which brought Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to power.

One of his first acts as prime minister was to scrap the last Conservative government’s plan to deport migrants to Rwanda as a deterrent to people crossing the Channel from northern France in small boats.

Twelve people died Tuesday off the coast of northern France as they attempted the crossing, the deadliest disaster this year.

However, former Conservative immigration minister Robert Jenrick accused Labour of “surrendering to the smuggling gangs”.

“They have abolished the only credible deterrent, the Rwanda policy,” he said.