Smuggled into the UK – via Southwold
Ukrainians used yacht to bring in 19 illegal migrants
PEOPLE smugglers used an ill- equipped yacht to bring migrants from the netherlands to the upmarket seaside town of Southwold.
nineteen Ukrainians arrived in Britain in a hired boat that police said was not fit to make the 100-mile crossing.
nine migrants were found on the vessel when it moored at the Suffolk town, famed for its pretty beach huts and Victorian pier. The other ten were held as they were being driven towards Ipswich.
Three Ukrainian men face lengthy sentences for the peoplesmuggling plot. London’s Blackfriars Crown Court heard how Yevhenii Vasylkov, 30, and 27-year-old Yupi Karakin were arrested after sailing the boat to the UK in October last year.
Vasylkov used fake identity papers to hire the vessel – named Flamingo – from a Dutch company called Enjoy Sailing.
But police said the lives of those on board were put at risk as the yacht was not equipped for the north Sea voyage.
Officers from the national Crime Agency and Border Force swooped as the yacht moored at the harbour in Southwold.
Ten of the migrants were transferred to two cars, which were later stopped by Suffolk police on the nearby A12. The drivers – Yuril Dzhuraniuk, 26, Mykhailo Riok, 27 – were arrested. Dzhuraniuk and Riok were found guilty of peoplesmuggling by a jury yesterday, while Vasylkov admitted the charge. All three will be sentenced on May 10 and face a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail. Karakin was cleared, but as he entered the UK illegally he now faces deportation.
The operation may come as a surprise to the residents of Southwold, as many smuggling operations tend to focus on more southerly counties such as Kent and Sussex.
The holiday hotspot is one of the most attractive towns on the East Anglian coast, with a Victorian lighthouse, a pier and row of multi- coloured beach huts that can change hands for more than £100,000.
It is even nicknamed Hampsteadon- Sea because of the number of well-heeled professionals who flock there for their holidays, with many buying second homes in the area.
Stars including Dame Judi Dench, Michael Palin, Stephen Fry and David Tennant are all regular visitors to Southwold. Film director Richard Curtis bought author Tony marks The Luhman lived a hut £400,000 town’s and in the nearby of worked fact Orwell wooden the that Walberswick. national there. Bookshop fisherman’s the Crime court hearing: Agency how criminal ‘This said case after networks demonstrates the involved crime in are organised prepared immigration to risk the lives of the people they smuggle for the sake of profit. ‘The vessel they travelled in from the netherlands was not equipped to make such a journey, and had it run into trouble the consequences could have been fatal. But this crime group didn’t care about that, they just wanted to make money out of the desperation of others to reach the UK.’