UK vows to smash gangs as courts jail people traffickers

LONDON: UK interior minister Yvette Cooper vowed on Friday that her government “will not rest” until people-smuggling gangs are dismantled, following a series of shocking migrant incidents including a deadly boat wreck in the Channel.

Her comments came shortly after a van driver received a 10-year prison term for smuggling migrants in a secret compartment where they were found screaming for help and starved of oxygen.

Anas al-Mustafa, 43, originally from Syria, was found guilty in August of assisting unlawful migration by trafficking the seven people in a specially adapted van.

Cooper spoke at a gathering of senior crime-fighting and intelligence officials that she chaired on Friday.

It came after at least 12 people perished trying to cross the Channel on Tuesday, when their small boat was ripped apart off the northern French coast.

Ahead of the summit, Cooper said that “exploiting vulnerable people is at the heart of the business model of these despicable criminal smuggling gangs.

“At least 12 people were killed as part of this evil trade. We will not rest until these networks have been dismantled and brought to justice.”