Human traffickers fined €942,000 and jailed

A court in Leuven has sentenced a gang of 11 human traffickers to a total of 31 years in prison, with fines amounting to €942,000. The men were charged with smuggling 157 illegal immigrants and received a fine of €6,000 for each case.

The court heard how the gang organised 61 transports between October of 2014 and January this year. The victims were supposed to be transported via Belgium to the UK, although many were picked up by border patrols.

Migrants were loaded into lorries at parking places along Belgium’s motorways, as well as industrial estates and ports. The traffickers were of various nationalities – Iraqi, Turkish, Bulgarian, Syrian and Albanian – but the two gangs were organised into one Turkish-Kurd and one Albanian group. The gangs’ operations were closed down after a raid at Rotselaar, Flemish Brabant, in January.

One Turkish man of 23 and an Iraqi of 22 were considered the ringleaders and were sentenced to five and four years respectively and fined a total of €222,000. Other sentences ranged from three years to six months. Two vehicles were confiscated by the court.

Photo: Police carry out spot checks for human trafficking along roads in West Flanders. Kurt Desplenter/Belga