BELGIUM: A Belgian court yesterday sentenced 23 people to up to eight years in prison for smuggling more than 10,000 Albanians to Britain over the past two years.
The court found the 23 guilty of human trafficking and belonging to a criminal organisation, and handed out sentences ranging from three to eight years.
It is the latest in a series of trials concerning human traffickers as the European Union cracks down on the third-most lucrative crime after drugs and arms.
In June, a Dutch court jailed seven members of a Chinese crime gang for organising the trafficking of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants who suffocated in a truck at a British port in 2000.
The tragedy shocked the EU into action, getting its 15 members to harmonise jail terms and toughen border controls.
Judge Freddy Troch, who presided over the Belgian trial in the north-western town of Dendermonde, called the convicted, most of whom are Albanians, "ruthless human traffickers ... Their only goal was to make as much money as possible on the back of pour souls", he said.
"The inhuman and beastly manner in which their clients were treated and hidden in trucks was of no concern to them."
Judge Troch sentenced gang leader Mhill Sokoli to eight years and fined him €125,000.
One defendant was found not guilty, according to court spokeswoman Ms Hilde Pauwels. Some of those convicted were from former Yugoslavia, she said.
An earlier media report said Turks were also involved in the network.
Not all defendants, who were arrested in February, were present at the hearing.
Local media said the smuggled Albanians paid up to €3,000 to be taken to Britain, with the gang cashing in a profit of some €50 million.
Mr Hein Diependaele, a lawyer for one of the defendants, sought a lighter sentence for his client by having him categorised as a human smuggler rather than a trafficker. "Those people want to come here and as long as the life they leave behind is a lot worse, they will continue to come," he said.
Traffickers are known to send their human cargo on trucks to the Belgian coast and have them ferried to Britain.
International law enforcement officials estimate that human trafficking generates up to $30 billion (€26.5 billion) a year. The EU estimates nearly half a million people a year are smuggled into the bloc.