Caught ferrying 36 illegal immigrants

A people trafficker was caught with 36 illegal immigrants on an inflatable boat, the court heard.

Baharuse Suleman, 24, attempted to smuggle the migrants across the Channel in a RHIB (Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat) on May 8 but the vessel was intercepted by Border Force officers.

The foreign nationals had paid Suleman’s associates 12,000 Euros each to make the crossing, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

Luke Stanton, prosecuting, said Suleman was also a non-EU national.

‘The boat was seen crossing the English Channel on 8 May. It was there where thirty-seven non-EU nationals were found on a boat.

‘The Crown’s case in the defendant was the pilot of that boat.

‘When he was initially questioned by an immigration officer he said he didn’t have to pay for the crossing and he had been told by the agent that had arranged the travel that he was useful as he could help get these nationals on the boat and he could pilot the boat.’

Aided by a Kurdish interpreter, Suleman spoke to confirm his name, date of birth and address.

Suleman, of John Aird Court, Maida Vale, denied facilitating the commission of a breach of UK immigration law by a non UK national.

The charge alleges Suleman ‘assisted in illegal entry into the UK without the requisite leave, by a person, namely 36 non-documented migrants, who was not a national of the United Kingdom, knowing or having reasonable cause for believing that the act facilitated the commission of a breach of immigration law by that person and that the person was not a national of the United Kingdom.’

Suleman was remanded into custody ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing at Canterbury Crown Court on 9 June.
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