Dutch police arrest ‘major supplier’ of Channel migrant boats
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A photo from 2022 showing a smuggler (centre) standing among migrants boarding an inflatable boat before they attempt to cross the English Channel illegally, from France to Britain.
PHOTO: AFP
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THE HAGUE – The Dutch police arrested a suspected major supplier of “unfit” boats used to smuggle migrants across the Channel, where more than 50 people died in 2024 trying to reach Britain, Europe’s law agency said on Nov 14.
The 44-year-old Turkish national was arrested by Dutch military police after arriving on a flight at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, in an operation involving Belgian, British and Dutch law enforcement, Eurojust said.
“He is suspected of running an operation that supplied small boats and engines to human smugglers who were active in Belgium and northern France,” the Hague-based body said in a statement.
The boats were “highly dangerous and unfit for open water”, it said, adding that “more than 50 people have died attempting to make the crossing so far in 2024”.
The man will now be extradited to Belgium to face human trafficking charges “in the context of the activities of a criminal organisation”.
He is suspected of shipping small boats from Turkey and storing them in Germany before they were being brought forward to northern France when needed, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Britain has vowed to “smash the gangs” of people smugglers to reduce small boat crossings.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the arrest.
“This is a significant piece of the jigsaw. I’m not pretending it’s the silver bullet, there are other steps that are going to be necessary, but this is a very important step,” he said.
French police officers on Nov 14 inspecting a body found on a beach in Calais, France, from where many migrants attempt the perilous crossing of the English Channel to reach Britain.
PHOTO: AFP
Since coming to power in July, Mr Starmer’s Labour government has been struggling to make good on election promises to reduce irregular immigration.
More than 2,200 people arrived in Britain in small boats so far in November, taking the total up to 32,900 in 2024, according to British government statistics.
Last week, the British authorities jailed an Iranian man for 17 years for organising small boat Channel crossings for migrants to enter Britain.
Amanj Hasan Zada, 34, who called himself “the best smuggler”, was found guilty of three counts of facilitating illegal immigration.
He was linked to three small boat crossings of Kurds from northern France in November and December 2023, which the NCA said he organised from his home in Lancashire, north-west England.
The conviction came just days after the NCA arrested nine other people in Britain as part of Interpol’s largest-ever operation against people smuggling. AFP
