UK vows to crack down on gangs as courts hand out sentences to traffickers – The Frontier Post

LONDON (AFP): British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed on Friday that her government “will not rest” until people-smuggling gangs are dismantled, after a series of shocking incidents involving migrants, including a deadly boat disaster in the Channel.

Her comments came shortly after a bus driver was jailed for 10 years for smuggling migrants into a secret compartment, where they were found screaming for help and starved 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.

Cooper spoke Friday at a meeting of senior crime and intelligence officials that she chaired.

This came after at least twelve people died on Tuesday while trying to cross the Channel, when their small boat was torn apart off the coast of northern France.

Speaking ahead of the summit, Cooper said “exploiting vulnerable people is at the heart of the business model of these despicable criminal trafficking gangs.

“At least 12 people have been murdered as part of this evil trade. We will not rest until these networks are dismantled and brought to justice.”

Although the focus is mainly on crossing the Channel by small boat, smugglers also use more traditional routes to transport people from mainland Europe to the UK.

Al-Mustafa was caught when crew members on a car ferry between Dieppe in northern France and Newhaven on the south coast of England heard pleas from the bus.

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

‘Evil’

Crew members used an axe to free the migrants by breaking through the fake bulkhead.

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.”

Angela Eagle, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, said the case underscores 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.

In another case, a British national who attempted to smuggle five migrants, including a five-year-old child, was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty at trial of assisting illegal immigration.

Border Force officers arrested Joshua Bynoe, 29, in Coquelles, France, as he drove his camper van, in which five Afghan nationals were hiding, towards the UK.

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 small boat crossings, calling it an expensive “gimmick.”

The Tories had spent £700 million ($900 million) on the plan, but only four migrants had moved to Rwanda – and they went voluntarily, Cooper told parliament in July.

According to the latest figures from the UK government, 22,240 migrants have been discovered and brought ashore so far this year.

There are also concerns about the growing demand for larger boats used to cross the busy shipping route.