Albanian people-smuggler jailed in UK for Channel crossings

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (AFP) - An Albanian man was jailed in the UK for nine years on Tuesday for organising "small boat" crossings of the Channel by migrants from northern France.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Mustaf Cunaj, 41, was one of several UK-based fixers linked to a people-smuggling gang that is thought to have brought some 10,000 people into the country.

The head of the gang, Hewa Rahimpur, was jailed for 11 years in Belgium in October for overseeing the operation, which stretched from Turkey to Belgium and France.

Several other members of the gang received jail terms ranging from 30 months to 10 years.

Cunaj was imprisoned after the UK parliament on Monday approved controversial government plans to deport to Rwanda undocumented migrants as part of a crackdown on "small boat" crossings.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the legislation would prove a deterrent and break the model of criminal gangs exploiting migrants desperate to come to the UK.

The NCA, which investigates serious and organised international crime, said Cunaj, who was living in southwest London, was in "constant contact" with people smugglers in northern France in 2022.

Investigators linked him to at least 31 crossings, including for children as young as five, which he helped arrange via WhatsApp messages. 

He admitted conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration and was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court in southwest London.