Hundreds detained in Northern Ireland as part of people smuggling crackdown
5 December 2024, 10:28 | Updated: 5 December 2024, 10:33
Hundreds of people have been detained in Northern Ireland as part of a large-scale Home Office crackdown on people smuggling.
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The detainees were reportedly attempting to enter the UK by crossing the border from the Republic of Ireland.
Immigration officials say criminal gangs have been charging up to €8000 to smuggle people via this route, which they reportedly present as a safer alternative to crossing on small boats.
In the Home Office’s Operation Comby, officers conducted a three-day crackdown involving multiple arrests in the ports and airports of Northern Ireland, Manchester, Liverpool, Holyhead and Cairnryan.
Four people attempting to board ferries or planes were apprehended in Belfast.
One was an Iranian, posing as a Ukrainian, who had appeared to have travelled from Barcelona to Dublin using a counterfeit passport.
Officials say the document was manipulated to look like it had been through multiple previous border control checks.
Jonathan Evans, inspector at the criminal and financial investigations unit in Belfast’s immigration enforcement, told The Guardian: “We will also probably put out a national alert to see if there have been any other Ukrainian counterfeit passports used and this could lead us to a new method used by organised criminals.”
Operation Comby was initially launched by the Home Office last year to tackle illegal migration on the Irish border.
It was also set up in part to assist Operation Gull, a joint effort with the Garda Siochána in the Republic of Ireland to tackle abuse of the common travel area (CTA).
The CTA lets only British and Irish citizens travel without passports between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic, Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
It recently sparked controversy in Ireland after it emerged that the route was being exploited by people smugglers.
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In September, the Home Office announced the arrests of 30 people across the UK accused of exploiting the CTA.
Up to £40,000 in cash was seized along with 10 fraudulent identity documents.
Evans said at the time: “We are taking action day in, day out to ensure we stay a step ahead of these criminal groups, disrupting them at the earliest possible stage. We will continue working relentlessly to ensure no one abuses the Common Travel Area or the UK’s borders.”
