A man from North London has been locked up for his role in a people smuggling operation that was using “compromised” documents to traffic victims to the UK. Abdalnasir Alarch, 49, had travelled to Hamburg to chaperone two people through border force control in September 2019 when he was first noticed by German authorities.
He was eventually arrested in February 2022 and pleaded guilty to two charges of assisting illegal immigration after police raided the room he rented in Edgware. Appearing today (April 5) at Southwark Crown Court, he was jailed for two years for his role in the “horrible and despicable trade”.
The court heard that Alarch had been recruited by another man, who had met with him in Belfast, and offered him financial rewards or “a gift” for collaborating with the smuggling business. After moving himself to the UK, originally to Ireland, from Sudan in 2003, Alarch was struggling financially and agreed to this offer of “fast cash” from Hani Alfadhly.
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His role as a chaperone was first noticed by German authorities on September 27, 2019, when he was discovered with a male and a female in the airport. The two illegal immigrants, who were not known to Alarch, were travelling on “compromised Spanish identity documents” and were attempting to board an easyJet flight.
The three of them were interrogated by border force control authorities and they denied travelling together. After reviewing CCTV footage, officers decided that Alarch had not behaved in a “conspiratorial manner”, and he was released. He then left the airport and travelled back to London in a coach, without the knowledge of UK border force control.
His activities then came under further questioning on September 30, when police arrested Alfadhly at Manchester Airport while he was facilitating the entry of other illegal immigrants. Examinations of his phone records showed a “flurry of communications” between him and the defendant and details and payments of flights.
Prosecutor Obi Mgbokwere told the court: “This case is about human trafficking which the prosecution say was organised or orchestrated by a person called Hani Alfadhly. Prosecution says that individual recruited Mr Alarch to facilitate entry of two individuals who were strangers to him.
“In short, the prosecution says that Mr Alarch was to engage and reassure the prospective illegal entrants, hand over to them the compromised international documents and then follow them through immigration checks and fly them to the UK as instructed,” he continued. Mr Mgbokwere also noted that there had been a “high degree of planning, organising, sophistication” and that Alarch had played a “prominent role” in the plot.
Sentencing him to two years in jail, Judge Charles Gratwicke said: “This country, like every other country, is entitled to monitor who it is that comes in and indeed who it is that goes out. The reasons for that are quite plain. If there was not that ability, then the task of ensuring that the population of this country remains safe from the acts of those who might wish to harm its citizens remains all the more difficult.
“There is for that reason that those who set out to deliberately evade the laws of this country can expect to receive immediate custodial sentences. But that is not the only reason. Those who prey upon the desires of vulnerable human beings to make a better life for themselves, those who prey upon them, leeching money out of them, trafficking them, can indeed expect to receive custodial sentences.
“That is particularly despicable in your own case, the way you have in fact fled some form of persecution. You gained asylum and you used that status to make money from others. It is for that reason that a custodial sentence is inevitable. I accept in your case that you were not the prime mover, but you knew exactly what you were doing.
“You flew to Hamburg knowing what you were doing, it was not a spur of the moment decision, and without people such as you, those higher up the chain would not be able to apply their horrible and despicable trade.”
Hani Alfadhly had previously pleaded guilty to six counts of assisting illegal immigration and was jailed for six years following a hearing at Manchester Crown Court.
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