EU agrees jail term for people traffickers

EU governments today agreed to set the same jail term threshold for convicted traffickers in human beings.

The latest move in efforts to crack down on the growing trade in illegal immigration came at talks between EU home affairs ministers in Brussels.

The decided that the maximum prison sentence for the masterminds behind refugee trafficking rackets will be at least eight years in each of the 15 member states.

This increases the possible jail term in some countries where the current maximum is only three years.

But it does not affect sentencing in the UK, which already has a higher maximum penalty, 10 years, for those found guilty of promoting and profiting from the trade in human misery.

Home Office minister Angela Eagle said afterwards that the decision sent a powerful message to those exploiting refugees: ‘‘Those who smuggle people into Europe and then exploit them in the sweatshops and brothels of our cities.’’

She went on: ‘‘They must know that their evil trade has no place in Europe and that when they are caught they will face stiff penalties.’’

People trafficking is now big business, nearly at least as large as the drugs trade. The traffickers use the same methods and display the same disregard for human life. Across Europe we are finding people who have been duped into paying huge sums to be smuggled to the West with a promise of a good job.

‘‘On arrival their passport has been confiscated by the traffickers and they have been forced to work in slave-like conditions or prostitution to repay the costs of their travel.’’

The EU agreed in May that the minimum level for the maximum jail sentence in 13 of the 15 EU member states should be eight years for those convicted of direct involvement in smuggling people through borders the ‘‘facilitators’’.

In Sweden and Denmark, where the maximum was previously only three years the figure was set at six years.

Today the target was the figures behind the operations, the organisers, often from afar, of the illegal immigration business, who exploit refugees and rake in big profits.

Ms Eagle said: ‘‘Taken with the penalties agreed in May for facilitation of illegal immigration, today’s measures show Europe’s determination to tackle the criminal gangs that trade in human misery and undermine our border controls.