Immigration Enforcement has handed a blow to organised criminal
gangs illegally smuggling people from Ireland to the UK, with 49
arrests across 3 days of targeted action at UK ports.
Between Tuesday 22 September and Thursday 24 September, law
enforcement agencies patrolled a number of seaports,airports,
roads and rail networksacrossNorthern Ireland, Scotland, England
and Walesin a bid to catch those circumventing UK immigration
laws.
Operation Comby, a multi-agency crackdown targeting individuals
who have illegally passed from Ireland to the UK has led to the
arrest ofover 250organised criminals and immigration offenders
since the election of which 113 have been removed. The operation
has also seen the seizure of almost half a million pounds in
cash.
It aims to stamp out abuse of the Common Travel Area (CTA)
between the United Kingdom and Ireland. The CTA is a
long-standing arrangement between the United Kingdom and Ireland
which allows British and Irish citizens to move freely between
each country.
This activity works alongside Immigration Enforcement's Operation
Gull which provides routine deployments across Northern Irish
ports and airports, tackling everyday abuse of the CTA which has
led to almost 1,000 arrests in the last year.
Minister for Border Security and Asylum, said:
We are bearing down on these organised criminal gangs who operate
on wicked lies and deception.
Individuals who think they can get round our laws will quickly
find out that they will not be successful.
This operationisa very clear example of Immigration Enforcement's
round the clock work disrupt these criminal gangs and remove
those with no right to be in the UK.
At Belfast International Airport, 2 Romanian women were arrested
as illegal entrants to the UK, having travelled from Ireland to
Northern Ireland without required permissions. Further checks
identified them as possible victims of people trafficking.
Intelligence was gained on the criminals who pushed them into the
journey. One was detained for removal back to Romania and the
other voluntarily returned back to Ireland.
Following intelligence sharing, Belfast Harbour Police stopped a
vehicle at Belfast Port carrying 4 Romanian nationals. Searches
of the vehicle found £130,000 worth of counterfeit Apple
products. All 4 individuals were arrested and now face removal
from the UK.
Director of Enforcement, Compliance and Crime, Eddy
Montgomery, said:
As part of our wider crackdown on abuse of the Common Travel
Area, Operation Comby is delivering an intelligence-led approach
to disrupting Organised Immigration Crime, targeting criminal
networks that exploit these routes.
Immigration crime can take many forms, but at the heart of what
we do is protecting vulnerable people and ensuring the criminal
gangs who exploit them are brought down.
Between July 2024 and June 2026, Immigration Enforcement
conducted almost 3,000 enforcement visits in Northern Ireland
resulting in over 2,400 arrests.
Nearly 1,000 people have been subsequently returned, with almost
500 of these being to Ireland.
On top of this, the Home Secretary announced that she will double
the Immigration Enforcement budget by 2028/29 and boost workforce
numbers by 60%. This will see tens of thousands more raids,
arrests, and removal of those with no right to be in the
UK.
The government has already begun the work of restoring control
and order to our borders.Since the election,over
80,000immigration offenders and foreigncriminalshavebeen removed
from the UK.
