Brussels, 09/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - According to a press release published by Europol and Eurojust on Tuesday 8 February, 35 people suspected of belonging to an illegal immigrant network transporting people between Vietnam and the United Kingdom have been arrested. Most of the arrests were in France and Germany with the police operation taking place in five countries - France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Nineteen people were arrested in France, eight in Germany, two in the Czech Republic and one in the United Kingdom.
France also took measures to dismantle a transit camp used by immigrants at Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk, where 38 immigrants (14 of Vietnamese and 17 of various other nationalities) were intercepted and “where they all lived in cramped conditions”. Operations also took place in Lille, Paris, London, Prague, Berlin, Munich and Budapest, where several suspected safe houses and apartments were targeted.
According to Europol and Eurojust, network members were illegally transporting Vietnamese immigrants to the United Kingdom. The illegal immigrants were provided with false documents, flown via Moscow and then smuggled onwards into the EU via trains, automobiles or concealed in lorries. For those who wanted to go to the UK, a group of Iraqi Kurdish criminal facilitators offered a service from Belgium and France to the UK for approximately €2.000 - 3.000, explained the press release. A more expensive method (€10.000 - 15.000) involved a direct flight to Paris, by way of deceptively procuring Hungarian and Czech Schengen visas issued in Hanoi.
This operation, which was initiated by magistrates in Lille, France, also allowed Europol to set up for the first time “a co-ordination centre to facilitate the exchange in real time of information” between Eurojust, France and the other countries involved. (S.P./transl.fl)