People-smuggling ring bust in France

PARIS: French police have busted a major people-smuggling ring that has been sending migrants to Britain in dinghies, seizing more than a dozen boats and 700 lifejackets in a raid, French officials said yesterday.

The ring, run by Iraqi Kurdish migrants, had a logistics hub in Lille, about 100km from the Channel beaches around Calais used for crossings. Three Iraqi men have been charged, along with three French suspects after their arrest on Monday.

Police discovered “a real factory supplying nautical equipment” in Lille, said Ocriest, the French agency battling illegal migration. More migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK from France so far this year than in the whole of 2021.