The number of people arrested by police after allegedly trying to smuggle people on ferries from Dutch ports into Britain has surged, according to the authorities in the Netherlands.



A total of 32 alleged smugglers have been arrested since the beginning of the year by police operating in the Rotterdam area, Europe’s busiest port, compared with a total of 20 during all of 2015. Previously, Dutch prosecutors charged just 23 suspects in 2013 and 2014 combined.

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Among those whose cases are now making their way through the Dutch courts are a British man and woman, aged 39 and 38, who were detained with two people in the trunk of their car. They were named as Essam Hamarida and Reem al-Majede, who the Dutch authorities say are both from London.

A focus has fallen recently in the UK on the possibility of small cruisers and yachts landing refugees on quiet beaches or small harbours in southern England, from Sea Palling in Norfolk to Salcombe in south Devon.

However, the Dutch prosecution service said by far the most common form of people smuggling detected by their border police involved the placing of people inside lorries or cars on scheduled ferry services, particularly the daily ferry between the Hook of Holland and Harwich. “We see refugees from various countries, from Iraq to Albania, transported in appalling conditions,” said Miriam Blom, the Dutch prosecutor for people-smuggling cases. “In one case were 13 people among a lot of rotting fruit. We have also seen people in the kitchen cabinets inside a motorhome and in the boot of a car – degrading, sometimes life-threatening situations.”

In response, Dutch border police have been undertaking extra checks of trucks, using sniffer dogs and specialist equipment at the Hook of Holland and Rotterdam. As well as cooperating with ferry service companies, a campaign has also been launched in Rotterdam to encourage lorry drivers to report possible signs of people-smuggling.

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Cases which started to make their way through the Dutch legal system on 31 May include that of a 47-year-old Romanian van driver accused of transporting two Syrians in boxes, as well as a Polish driver, 35, and Romanian passenger, 28, from a truck whose cargo space contained an Afghan family. The six family members were hidden behind a 40cm-wide double-wall with two small air holes.

Also appearing in court was a 49-year-old Dutch man carrying four Afghan people in his van, as well as a 32-year-old Romanian van driver who was transporting nine Afghans.

Two cases scheduled for legal hearings next week include a 35-year-old Romanian driver whose truck was carrying five Syrians hidden amongst a cargo of furniture and a German man who had 17 Afghans in a truck carrying insulation.



While the cases above involved smuggling on ferry routes, a separate investigation is continuing into that of an alleged people-trafficking gang who were suspected of trying to transport 24 Vietnamese and Albanian people in a yacht across the North Sea to the Norfolk coastal village of Sea Palling. Two Dutch nationals were initially arrested when the boat was intercepted in August last year off the coast of Holland while a further seven suspects were detained in the following months.

Stena Line, which operates two ferries as part of a twice-daily service from Harwich to the Hook of Holland, said it was working very closely and cooperating fully with the Dutch and UK border forces to “ensure the highest appropriate level of security checks and wherever possible prevent the entry of those travelling illegally”.