Dutch man could get 4 years in prison for people smuggling at Dutch-UK ferry port

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded four years in prison against a 33-year-old man from Gemert-Bakel for people smuggling. The man is accused of trying to smuggle 47 people onto the ferry to the United Kingdom at Hoek van Holland.

The Koninklijke Marechaussee caught the man on December 5 last year when sniffer dogs alerted to the suspect’s truck at the border crossing point for the ferry to England. When Marechaussee officers searched the truck, they found 47 men, women, and children hiding in the trailer among vintage cars. They were from Iraq, Turkey, Vietnam, and Albania, among others.

The truck’s tarpaulin had no cuts and was closed with hooks only reachable from outside. The Marechaussee, therefore, accused the driver of people smuggling. According to the OM, the man also confessed to that during interrogation, saying he received 45,000 to get these people to the U.K.

The prosecutor called people smuggling a “reprehensible crime” during the hearing. It does not only disrupt government policy on immigration but also puts people in danger, the prosecutor said. “These people were in danger of being injured by the load in the trailer, danger of becoming hypothermic and becoming unwell. They could not leave the very cramped space they were in without outside help.”