Three arrested in Iraq over alleged UK people smuggling links

Three people have been arrested in Iraq's Kurdistan Region for their alleged role in a global people smuggling network that moved migrants from the area to the UK and Europe.

The group of detained men are alleged to have links to the same network as Amanj Hasan Zada, a UK-based people smuggler who was jailed last year for his role in facilitating small boat Channel crossings.

All three men are in custody and will be prosecuted for human trafficking offences by the authorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), the National Crime Agency said.

In the first operation of its kind, NCA officers were deployed to assist the region's Security Council and Security Agency with the arrests.

One of those detained was a 38-year-old man accused of working with the smuggling network to coordinate the transportation of migrants into Greece or Italy using over a dozen yachts.

Each boat contained 60 or 70 people, who would then be moved on to northern Europe or the UK, the NCA said.

The second man, a Hawala banker aged in his 40s, is accused of processing financial transactions on behalf of Zada. Hawala is an alternative and often informal system of organising money transfers.

A third man, in his 30s, was detained over accusations he served as a middle-man for the group, gathering migrants for movement by the network previously linked to Zada.

All three men were from the city of Sulaymaniyah, and were arrested between 8 January and 12 January.

Zada, from Preston in Lancashire, was linked to three separate crossings from France in 2023 involving Kurdish migrants who had travelled through eastern Europe.

The 34-year-old Iranian national was convicted on three counts of facilitating illegal immigration and jailed for 17 years in November.

According to the NCA, Zada used social media to advertise his services, sometimes posting videos of those he had successfully smuggled thanking him for his help.

Another video posted to YouTube, thought to have been recorded in Iraq in 2021, showed Zada at a party where he was celebrated as "the best smuggler" in a song performed by Kurdish musicians.

NCA branch commander Martin Clarke, who was among those who were deployed to KRI, said people smuggling gangs were "risking the lives of those they transport, feeding them lies via their social media channels, and claiming journeys are 100% safe".

He added: "More than 70 people lost their lives attempting to cross the Channel in small boats in 2024, so this trade must stop."

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the NCA investigation was an example of what the government meant "when we said we would dismantle the gangs behind this evil trade, and disrupt their supply chains."

The operation had been aided by the UK's recent deal with Iraq on law enforcement cooperation and border security, Ms Cooper added.