Asylum seeker gets 25 years for people smuggling and shouts: ‘This is unfair’
A people smuggling boss who made £12.3m flooding Europe with thousands of migrants while on state benefits moaned ‘this is unfair’ as he was jailed for 25 years.
Egyptian asylum seeker Ahmed Ebid, 42, organised ‘death trap’ boat crossings across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy between 3 October 2022 and 21 July 2023.
The former fisherman, who came to the UK on a small boat, was working with people smuggling networks in north Africa to organise boats to bring over hundreds of migrants at a time.
One crossing in October 2022 saw more than 640 migrants rescued by the Italian authorities after they attempted to cross in a wooden boat from Libya.
It was taken into port in Sicily.
In another just weeks later, 265 migrants were rescued by the Italian coastguard from a 20-metre fishing boat found adrift in the Mediterranean. The boat had left Benghazi in Libya.
In April 2023 two further search and rescue operations were mounted following distress calls to the coastguard.
In each case more than 600 migrants were on board each boat.
Ebid was arrested on 21 June 2023, after National Crime Agency officers bugged his home in suburban west London, Southwark Crown Court heard.
He was in constant contact with his associates across Europe and North Africa during the crossings.
The Egyptian was also said to be involved in providing technical advice to crews during the crossings while helping move and house migrants.
Frederick Hookway, prosecuting, said Ebid organised passage for 3,781 migrants charging on average around £3,272 a time, making a total of £12,375,212.
Ebid claimed he only made around £12,600 after providing navigational and seafaring advice.
Mr Hookway told the court: ‘He was receiving financial benefit from the offending.
‘It is obvious from the transcripts that the defendant was doing a number of things. He was arranging crews, giving directions on logistical issues such as the amount of water needed in boats, and practical directives about phones.’
‘It is obvious that all that assistance went way beyond navigational or sea-faring advice.
‘Many incidents where he claimed he was talking about fishing he was not.’
Ebid had told the court that in many of these conversations he was talking about fishing, not human trafficking.
He claimed Saddam Haftar, the son of the Supreme Commander of the Libyan National Army, Khalifa Haftar. was the trafficking boss responsible for flooding Europe with migrants.
‘A substantial amount of conversation was recorded, and a lot of it appears to be related to the movements of people in boats across the Mediterranean,’ he said.
‘I was giving advice to fishermen in Sierra Leone and Egypt. For example, if they see any problems with the direction, any problems with the boat, any problems with fishing, I have to direct.
‘I am very famous and I have the background for that.’
He claimed that he gave advice to fisherman in north Africa because he was unable to work in the UK, and that he would be paid if they made a profit.
‘I applied for asylum, I was not able to work. They would give me a percentage of their work.’
Bartholomew O’Toole, defending, insisted that if Ebid had made £12 million he would have been living a more lavish lifestyle than he was.
‘He was receiving state benefits. There is not a single sign of him living a luxurious lifestyle.
‘If he was making even a small proportion of that twelve or so million pounds, surely he would have been buying himself a more comfortable lifestyle.
‘He denies housing or moving migrants.’
Judge Adam Hiddleston had rejected Ebid’s basis of plea as ‘simply unbelievable’ following a trial of issue.
‘It is simply incredible that if he would have been engaging in commercial fishing he would have had a team – including a captain – none of whom are capable of navigating a fishing boat without the assistance of someone in London calling them on a mobile phone.
‘He was doing the best he could to avoid the court reaching the conclusion which I have, that he was involved personally at a very high level in the trafficking of migrants from Libya into Europe.’
Jailing Ebid for 25 years the judge said: ‘Between April and June 2023 the National Crime Agency recorded conversations taking place in your home by of a listening device.
‘Analysis of the transcript of those conversations suggested that you had a significant managerial role within an international crime group, which was engaged in the illegal trafficking of migrants from Libya to the EU for considerable financial gain.’
The conversations demonstrated ‘not only the level of your involvement in this operation, but also the dreadful and appalling lengths you were willing to go to in the furtherance of that criminal activity.
‘The overall picture includes numerous messages referring to the provision of crews, boats, fuel and water.
‘It includes references to the bribing of soldiers and officials who were tasked with enforcing border control in Libya.
‘It includes references to payments running into the hundreds of thousands – whether they be Egyptian pounds, Libyan dinar or British pounds.
‘As to personal profit, you said this: ‘Would I reject it? It’s a living which came to my door, would I say no to it?
‘You also said: ‘As long as we are alive and this work is going on, we will never stop.’
‘Most chillingly of all are those messages that demonstrate the threats of violence ordered by you and the level of ill-treatment metered out towards those migrants you were trafficking.’
The judge referred to a message sent by Ebid on 7 May 2023 stating: ‘Phones is not allowed and tell them guys anyone caught with phone will be killed, thrown in the sea.’
The NCA had also been provided with material from Italian authorities concerning seven illegal crossings orchestrated by Ebid, he added.
‘The pattern of these crossings was was identical.
‘The boats in each case would be guided by you from Libyan ports to Italian waters and when they had reached there the coastguard would be contacted, thus ensuring that all on board would be rescued and would hopefully arrive at their intended destination: an EU member state.’
Ebid earned in the region of £12,375,000 for trafficking ‘over 3,700’ migrants over to Italy in this way.
‘This is a truly staggering figure and no doubt that money came from the hard earned savings of each of those desperate individuals,’ said Judge Hiddleston.
‘These were ordinary human beings – men, women and also children – who were ruthlessly and cynically exploited by you and the group which you were such a central and important part of.’
The people smuggled into Italy by Ebid were ‘so vulnerable and desperate that they were prepared to pay a huge financial price and an even higher personal price – namely by risking their lives and the lives of their families in order to enter the EU.’
Judge Hiddleston said: ‘The risk of loss of life on a truly considerable was considerable.
‘These were fishing boats, not ferries – they were not designed to carry many hundreds of people across a large stretch of water.
‘There is simply no conceivable way in which your actions can be described as bearing any humanitarian features whatsoever.
‘Whilst you were not living in luxury in the few months after you moved to this country, the fact remains that this operation generated many millions in income.
‘You played an essential part in the operation of this conspiracy: without you – your counsel accepts this on your behalf – it could not have worked.
‘The treatment of the migrants on your orders and in your name was horrifying – they were simply a commodity to you.
‘You talked of them in terms of units, not people, referring to them as cartons.’
Before asking Ebid to stand up, the judge referred to the Messenia migrant boat disaster of June 2023 in which ‘500 or so’ migrants died.
‘When that disaster happened in Greece, and the relevant transcript records this, your concern was clearly not for the over 500 innocent men, women and children that had drowned, but for the potentially detrimental effect that appalling tragedy might have on the business of human trafficking.
‘Such callous disregard for the victims of this terrible trade you were involved in is almost impossible to comprehend.’
The judge said the 25 year sentence was a deterrent to convey that ‘offending such as yours, that involves exploitation on such an enormous scale which leads to so much misery and which also could so easily lead to a considerable loss of life, will result in a very lengthy sentence of imprisonment indeed.’
Through his Arabic translator, Ebid protested: ‘This is unfair, your honour, this is unfair, this is unfair!’.
Ebid, of Church Road, Isleworth, earlier admitted conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration to a European Union member state, by supplying boats to ferry migrants from Libya and Italy between 3 October 2022 and 21 July 2023.
The international operation had involved the Italian coastguard and Guardia di Finanza.
Tim Burton, Specialist Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘Ahmed Ebid played a leading role in a sophisticated operation, which breached immigration laws and endangered lives, for his own and others’ financial gain.
‘Vulnerable people were transported on long sea journeys in ill-equipped fishing vessels completely unsuitable for carrying the large number of passengers who were on board. His repeated involvement in helping to facilitate these dangerous crossings showed a complete disregard for the safety of thousands of people, whose lives were put at serious risk.
‘The Crown Prosecution Service will continue to work tirelessly with law enforcement and international partners, including the Border Security Command, to disrupt people smuggling networks and bring those who profit from this exploitative trade to justice.’
Sally Cullen, CPS Liaison Prosecutor for Italy, said: ‘We would like to thank the National Anti-mafia and Counter Terrorism Prosecution Office in Rome and the District Anti-mafia Prosecution Office in Messina for their outstanding contribution to the successful outcome of this case. The CPS’ International Unit will continue to work closely with colleagues in Italy and across Europe to combat organised immigration crime.’
Jacque Beer, NCA Regional Head of Investigation, said: ‘Ebid was part of a crime network who preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats.
‘The cruel nature of his business was demonstrated by the callous way he spoke of throwing migrants into the sea if they didn’t follow his rules. To him they were just a source of profit.
‘He was based in the UK but organising crossings from north Africa. A proportion of those he moved to Italy would also have ended up in northern Europe, attempting to cross the Channel to the UK.
‘Working with our partners in Italy we were able to evidence his role in organising boats and the migrants to go in them.
‘People smuggling is an international crime and, working with our partners both home and abroad, we are determined to do all we can to target, disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks involved.’
