Suspected people-smuggling gang arrested in nationwide crackdown | Manchester News

Six people suspected to be part of a people-smuggling gang supplying fake identities to illegal migrants have been arrested.

The Home Office said that five men and one woman were arrested in dawn raids on Tuesday in Cheltenham, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Bradford.

The lead suspect, a 37-year-old Botswana national, was arrested in Cheltenham on suspicion of assisting and planning the illegal entry of more than 200 migrants from Botswana into the UK.

The Home Office said the suspects are thought to be involved in a criminal network exploiting vulnerable people by making them work in the care sector without proper training.

Chief immigration officer Mick Wilson said it was thought the gang had brought up to 200 people into the country illegally over the last two years.

“Our objective is to arrest those who are involved, who were making money out of the facilitation, and also providing them with false documents and false identities,” he said.

Once in the country, it is believed the suspected gang submitted false asylum claims using fake documents.

They are also believed to have helped migrants get jobs in care homes, despite them not having adequate training.

As well as the man arrested in Cheltenham, a British man aged 36 was detained in Sheffield, a 33-year-old woman in Oldham and another man, aged 46, in Bradford.

Two further men, aged 39 and 50, were arrested in Swinton and Nottingham respectively.

The suspects were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to help asylum seekers enter the UK, and conspiracy to breach UK immigration law.

The arrests come as part of the Labour government’s Plan for Change, which was launched to target people-smuggling gangs.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: “This operation demonstrates that we will use the full force of the law against those who facilitate illegal entry into the UK for exploitation.”

Immigration enforcement criminal and financial investigation inspector Phillip Parr said: “There is no place for those who profit from human misery, and we will continue to use all available powers to pursue and prosecute those involved in these despicable crimes.”