Finland’s border police have uncovered a migrant smuggling ring based in Sweden and the UK that used other people’s passports as well as fake documents to smuggle migrants into the UK.
The investigation into the group began in January when a Swedish citizen and a Kuwaiti national were apprehended at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, with the latter found to have been using the passport of another individual.
Finnish investigators found the Swedish national had been to Finland previously and was suspected of smuggling two other migrants to the UK using third-party passports in the same way, broadcaster YLE reports.
According to investigators, the group charged around €8,000 to get migrants into the UK, and one of the Swedish men had made a false identity and applied for asylum in the UK to disguise himself while carrying out his smuggling.
Europol, the European Union police agency, then became involved in the investigation along with Eurojust and coordinated raids of homes in both Sweden and the UK leading to the arrest of several of suspected migrant smugglers.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic and the strict lockdown measures in the UK, illegal immigrants continue to flow into the UK prompting Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage to label the recent increase “the beginning of an invasion.”
Prior to the lockdown the UK saw more than double the number of illegal migrant arrivals in January and February on the previous year. Deportations, however, have lagged far behind with just 155 illegals deported since 2018 while 3,200 illegals arrived.
The bust of the migrant smuggling network comes just months after French and Dutch police dismantled another network, arresting 23 individuals who smuggled an estimated 10,000 Kurds into the UK.
The network is also said to have charged a high price for their services, as much as €7,000 per migrant and is believed to have profited greatly from smuggling, netting as much as €70 million overall.