An asylum seeker began a £12 million people-smuggling operation, which carried more than 3,700 migrants from Africa to Europe, within days of arriving in the UK, a court has heard.
Ahmed Ebid arranged for dangerously overcrowded fishing boats to carry the migrants, who were charged an average of £3,700 each for the crossings from Libya to Italy.
The Egyptian national arrived in the UK in a small boat crossing in October 2022, Southwark crown court was told. Over the next six months, from the home he was given in Isleworth, west London, he arranged seven crossings of the Mediterranean.
A dinghy is boarded by migrants near Calais in October 2024
SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The case highlights the key role played by UK-based smuggling gangs in arranging for migrants to cross into Europe and then often across the English Channel.
