Police in the seaside resort of De Panne (West Flanders) have arrested two British nationals suspected of involvement in people-trafficking. The two Britons had crossed the English Channel to Belgium in a rubber dinghy and are suspected of being about to collect twelve migrants in Belgium and ferry them to the UK.
The two suspects are aged 34 and 44 and are of Albanian heritage. A third suspect has been detained in the UK. The arrests were made with the help of the UK’s National Crime Agency that in West Flanders is now working together with Belgian federal police. Belgian prosecutors say international co-operation is needed in order to beat people-trafficking rings. “We wish to avoid people being put in danger on the North Sea” says prosecutor Frank Demeester. The suspects detained in De Panne appear before Bruges magistrates today.
Britain’s National Crime Agency believes this form of people-trafficking is particularly dangerous. People-traffickers set little store by the migrant lives they say.
