Police arrest 11 people in human-trafficking raids across UK

Targetted raids across three British cities led to the arrests of 11 people suspected of being part of a Europe-wide people-smuggling ring.

Seven were detained in London while two arrests were made in both Birmingham and Gateshead. They were held on suspicion of assisting illegal immigration. Another person was arrested in London on suspicion of immigration offences.

The Home Office said it was trying to disrupt an organised criminal network that tries to smuggle migrants, largely from Afghanistan, through Europe and into the UK in modified vehicles.

“Many are passed into the hands of other crime gangs who would seek to exploit them for modern slavery purposes, including labour exploitation and the illicit sex trade,” said Steve Dann, its director of criminal and financial investigation.

Alongside the arrests in the UK, a further eight people were detained in Belgium and seven in Bulgaria, also on suspicion of assisting illegal immigration.

The UK raids were led by officers from the Home Office’s immigration enforcement section and were part of an international investigation also involving the National Crime Agency (NCA), Europol and Eurojust, a body that promotes cooperation in tackling cross-border crime.

“This international investigation is targeting an organised network suspected of being involved in a systematic attempt to evade the UK’s immigration controls,” Mr Dann said. “We have been working closely with law enforcement colleagues across Europe and that vital cooperation will continue as the investigation proceeds with the evidence we have seized today.”

Chris Hogben, deputy head of the Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce at the NCA, added: “Criminal gangs often facilitate the arrival of illegal migrants into the UK by exploiting their desperation without thought for safety and with the sole motive of profit. We see this through migrants being sent across the channel in unseaworthy small boats or stuffed into the back of cramped lorries, vans and cars.”

He said the operation was “a good example of how we can bring together law enforcement from across Europe to work together to take on that threat and disrupt the organised networks involved in people smuggling”.

The arrests come as The Independent, in partnership with the London Evening Standard, continues a special investigation into the scandal of modern slavery in Britain.