Human traffickers earned €12m a year

THE trafficking gang that sent eight people to their deaths in a container bound for Ireland over a year ago made at least €12m a year from their activities.

The gang leader, who has not been caught, operated the illegal business like a travel agency, specialising in sending Turks and Albanians to Britain, a court was told in Bruges yesterday.

During the second day of the trial of eight members of the gang, the prosecutor asked for up to 12 years jail for those accused of manslaughter, trafficking and belonging to a criminal gang. Freddy Van Damme, the prosecutor, estimated the Albanian Kosovo gang shipped at least 2,400 people in a year to Britain charging them €5,000 each.

The evidence against them is mainly from the thousands of mobile phone calls they made organising their activities, including one call made after the tragedy to a relative living in Ireland. Belgian police spent over a year checking through the calls, putting together the activities of the gang.

Ozgur Doganbaloglu, 42, a Turk living in London was the ring leader. “He was a specialist in human trade, operating like an illegal tour operator, with people having to pay in full beforehand for the all-inclusive tours,” said Mr Van Damme.

The leader of the Belgian branch of the gang, Zogaj Bekim, 22, who is also on the run, drove a BMW 850 and wore a gold Rolex watch. Like all but one of the gang he was an asylum seeker being paid dole up to December last.

The man described as his chief executive, Flamour Domi, a 45-year-old Albanian Kosovor, was paid according to the numbers he shipped out of Brussels in containers.

As the 13 people who ended up in Ireland were loaded into the container, he took their names and ticked them off as they got in. “When they were getting onto the truck it was calm and methodical and not rushed. Their names were written down and ticked off as they got on”, the Court heard.

Before Zogaj Bekim shut the door of the almost airtight container one of the five survivors asked him how long they would have to stay inside. He told her three hours and said jokingly: “But it could be 30 hours but don’t worry I am sending my nephew with you as well”.

The woman, Kadriye Kalendeigil, 33, lost her husband and two sons, aged 16 and 10 in the journey which took over 101 hours. Like most of the others they had flown from Istanbul in Turkey to Bosnia, where they did not need a visa to enter. They went overland through Switzerland and were to travel by train to France and into Britain. However there were problems in France and they were put on a train in Paris to Brussels by friends who were also part of the gang in France.

Karandede Guler who lost his wife Saniye, aged 28, nine-year-old son and four-year-old daughter, told police they also flew to Bosnia and then travelled by train and truck through Vienna and Germany to Belgium. Mrs Guler earned €40 a month as a cleaner in Turkey and they paid €25,000 for the journey. “They sold everything they had and, with two small children, they had no choice but to jump into the container that brought them to their death,” said Mr Van Damme.