Seven people were arrested during a British operation to dismantle a smuggling network bringing Albanians to the UK. NCA
Seven people were arrested during a British operation to dismantle a smuggling network bringing Albanians to the UK. NCA
Seven people were arrested during a British operation to dismantle a smuggling network bringing Albanians to the UK. NCA
Seven people were arrested during a British operation to dismantle a smuggling network bringing Albanians to the UK. NCA

UK dismantles Albanian people-smuggling network


Paul Peachey
  • English
  • Arabic

The suspected ringleader of a gang that charged hundreds of Albanian migrants up to £25,000 ($34,093) to be smuggled into the UK has been arrested in a series of raids across Britain.

Seven people were arrested in London, southern and north-east England, in an operation involving about 100 officers, said the UK’s National Crime Agency, which is responsible for tackling large-scale trafficking operations.

The migrants were smuggled into the UK in lorries and vans in an operation that appears to have been run on an industrial scale. Eight vehicles linked to the gang have been stopped since July 2020, including two within 30 minutes, each carrying 10 migrants, the NCA said.

Six of the vehicles were stopped during searches at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Coquelles, near Calais, northern France. The other two were stopped in northern Europe after intelligence was shared between French, German and British officials.

Officers arrested six men, aged 26 to 44, and a 26-year-old woman on Tuesday. They were held on suspicion of crimes including facilitating illegal immigration and money laundering offences.

Some of the migrants paid between £20,000 and £25,000 for their ride, the NCA said. Its financial investigators identified bank accounts believed to belong to the network, with some turning over hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The smugglers are believed to have contacts in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland helping to run their operations.

The majority of people smuggled into the UK arrive by lorry but criminal operations have been disrupted by tighter security at border points and a reduction in cross-border traffic during the coronavirus pandemic.

But criminal gangs are adapting to the changing circumstances by smuggling more people on small boats across the narrow waterway that separates France from the UK. The number of people crossing the Channel this year has overtaken the total of 8,461 for the whole of last year.

The visibility of boat crossings is increasing political pressure on the British government to act after a series of failed attempts to limit the numbers travelling from northern Europe.

“We believe these arrests will have significantly disrupted an organised criminal network responsible for smuggling potentially hundreds of people into the UK illegally,” Richard Harrison of the NCA said.

 

Company: Instabug

Founded: 2013

Based: Egypt, Cairo

Sector: IT

Employees: 100

Stage: Series A

Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors

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The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

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Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah 

Starring: Alaa Meqdad

Rating: 4/5

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How has net migration to UK changed?

The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.

It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.

The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.

The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.

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Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed 

Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
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  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

Key recommendations
  • Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
  • Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
  • Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
  • More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
THE DETAILS

Deadpool 2

Dir: David Leitch

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Justin Dennison, Zazie Beetz

Four stars

Updated: July 21, 2021, 10:15 AM`