Allowed to run bus trips into UK, Romanian who’s accused of people trafficking
A ROMANIAN accused of people smuggling has been allowed to work for a travel firm running coach trips to the UK.
Nicolae Matei is said to be part of a trafficking operation that was sneaking migrants from Syria, Iraq and Iran into Europe for £9,000 each.
Yet he has been given permission by a judge in his homeland to drive passengers from Bucharest to Birmingham twice a month as part of his bail conditions.
Exploiting EU open border policies, he is able to move around freely on the continent without restriction. Experts and MPs yesterday said it was ‘absolutely incredible’ that suspects could be given free reign to drive a tourist bus to the UK.
Matei, who denies smuggling and is awaiting a verdict in his case, was arrested with his friend Mihai Dumitru as part of a swoop on a trafficking network run by Turkish criminals. Dumitru was given a suspended prison sentence in Romania after admitting his role in the gang. But he too has been able to take advantage of EU freedom of movement rules and has now moved to London where he is working as a builder.
The revelations add to concerns over the open borders that allow criminals and suspects to travel into Britain under the EU’s freedom of movement rules.
When EU nationals arrive their passport details are checked against a ‘watchlist’ of suspected terrorists and foreign criminals compiled by the UK Border Agency. But unless an offender is high profile and has committed very serious crimes, the system is unlikely to be aware of their previous convictions – or arrests – leaving a gaping hole in our border controls.
The Mail tracked down Matei to his car wash business in Ramnicu Valcea, three miles north of Bucharest. It emerged that in addition
‘It just defies belief’
to his work driving to Birmingham for travel agency Exotic World Travel, Matei also runs his own firm, Stefania Travel – which advertises bus trips to England, Germany, Greece and France.
He explained that he is also paid commission to transport packages, which are rarely checked by border forces.
‘If you want to put a package on the bus then no one will check it,’ he said. ‘They have found drugs and cigarettes in packages on my bus but it is not my responsibility.
‘During one trip to Greece, they also found Pakistani migrants on my bus at the Greek border. I had no idea they had boarded the bus.’
According to prosecution papers in Romania, Matei and Dumitru joined an 18- strong migrantsmuggling gang led by Turkish nationals Ismail Oz and Mehmet Ergin in March 2014.
Having come under surveillance from the Romanian secret service, Matei is alleged to have been caught arranging for a Kurdish migrant to cross the Romanian-Hungarian border and on to Austria. Hungary is part of the EU’s Schengen Area – which allows unfettered movement across borders between member states – so once inside, a migrant can move freely. Prosecutors say that on June 5, 2014, the migrant was tracked leaving Dumitru’s house, where he had stayed for six days, to hook up with Matei in Ramnicu Vulcea.
From there, Matei is alleged to have picked up the stowaway in his bus – emblazoned with the words Express International Lines – for the five-hour journey to the Romanian border town of Arad.
The migrant was transferred to a Chrysler car driven by two other smugglers, but the operation was stopped at the Hungarian border after officials were tipped off by the Romanian secret service.
Dumitru was caught transporting migrants a further three times between June and July 2014. On one occasion, a Syrian and two Turkish migrants were found hiding in a cardboard box in the back of his Mercedes Sprinter van.
In court in 2015, he was given a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence. Matei denies migrant smuggling and being a member of an organised criminal gang.
When the Mail visited him this week, he claimed he had been duped into carrying the Kurdish migrant by Dumitru, who is the godfather to his children, and had no idea he was an illegal migrant.
‘I am not guilty,’ he said. ‘It’s not my duty to verify if he is an illegal migrant or not.’ Dumitru now lives in Ilford, east London, where he was seen driving a smart Mercedes C-Class. He said he arrived with his family in February and is earning money renovating a McDonald’s in Colchester, Essex.
Chris Hobbs, a former Scotland Yard border control officer, said it ‘defies belief ’ that Matei is still allowed to drive to the UK.
He said: ’All in all, I find it absolutely incredible that somebody who is facing these charges can still be allowed to use his bus across Europe and possibly end up in the UK in it.
It just defies belief. The Home Office need to get a grip of our borders and prevent anybody who is a threat to this country from entering.’
Tory MP Christopher Chope, a member of the Commons home affairs select committee, said: ‘This must stop. But it ought to have been stopped already.
‘We have got large numbers of foreign criminals who are here because they can come in and out freely without any restriction.
‘The bizarre way in which this smuggling racket has been condoned by the Romanian authorities must send shivers down everybody’s spine.’