BELGIUM: Authorities bust people-smuggling ring

Record ID: 348379

  • Title: BELGIUM: Authorities bust people-smuggling ring
  • Date: 19th October 2008
  • Summary: (EU) LENNIK, BELGIUM (OCTOBER 18, 2008) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) TIM DE WOLF, ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR IN CHARGE OF THE CASE, SAYING ''We suspect that this is the regular scale at which this is taking place. So probably, on a year, the time of a year, we are speaking about thousands of illegal Indians passing through Belgium to England, and there will always be organisa
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Police
  • Reuters ID: LVA6OSMEVFOFRHC22Q48NH1CA1NG
  • Story Text: Belgian police arrest 15 members of a people-smuggling ring who were in the process of moving over 200 illegal immigrants from India to Britain.
    Belgium police swooped on a number of suspected safe-houses at dawn on Saturday (October 18) and discovered 215 Indian immigrants waiting to be transferred to the United Kingdom.
    The bust followed a year-long investigation, and caught the immigrants as they awaited the last leg of a journey that started in the Punjab region of India.
    Fifteen traffickers have been arrested, Tim De Wolf, assistant prosecutor in charge of the case, said.
    ''Unfortunately this operation proves what we suspected and that is that this is happening on a large scale because we found altogether more than 200 illegal Indians. But on the other hand, as I said, we were also looking for the suspects and we think we have found and identify about 15 of the organisers of this smuggling of human beings,'' De Wolf said.
    Britain is a top destination for the immigrants because it already has a large Indian community, allowing them to blend in, but the UK's immigration minister Phil Woolas has vowed a crack-down in the face of rising unemployment.
    De Wolf said the immigrants may have pay as much as 20,000 euros (26,940 dollars) for the trip to Western Europe.
    ''We know that illegal Indians usually pay an amount of about 20,000 euros for the entire trip from India to Western Europe. So that gives an indication of the importance of the gains that are made with this kind of activity... These people alone have been worth about millions of euros to the traffickers,'' De Wolf said.
    To reach Britain, De Wolf said the immigrants would either pay up to 5,000 euros to travel in the trailer of a lorry driver who was aware and would try to evade police, or they could gamble by paying 2,000 euros to be smuggled into the trailer of an unsuspecting driver.
    De Wolf said in one of the safe-houses twenty five immigrants were crammed in a room of twelve square meters, with no window or mattresses.
    The traffickers face up to ten years in prison. The Indian immigrants will be released with a request to leave Belgium territory within five days.
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