HEARTBREAKING

Officers’ sadness over the ordeal of 29 people trafficked into Britain

A GROUP of 29 scared and confused people are found in the back of a van as they are smuggled into Britain by an unscrupulous gang.

Police who made the discovery said it is “heartbreaking” that human beings are being exploited like this.

Channel 4 show Call the Cops follows officers as they track down the van after a resident reported seeing a large group get off a boat in Newlyn, Cornwall, and into the back of the vehicle.

Sgt Olly Tayler pulled it over on the M5 in Devon and found the Vietnamese people, including children, who had travelled for a year to get to the UK.

Sgt Tayler said there were “29 terrified individuals who have no idea where they are, where they’re going or what’s going to happen to them”. He said: “I can only begin to imagine what that journey must have been like, and the conditions they endured, how horrific that must be.”

Sgt Tayler added: “People are exploiting the vulnerability of others – they are just a commodity to be traded.

“And the United Kingdom is part of that process. It’s heartbreaking.”

The operation in April last year involved dozens of officers – taking them away from dealing with other crimes. Four British people were jailed over smuggling the group.

The longest sentence was four-and-ahalf years. Judge Robert Linford said the gang were motivated by profit and “traded in human misery” with the victims “carted around like freight”.

A new series of Call the Cops begins on Tuesday at 9pm on Channel 4.

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