Two London men have been sentenced to five years and three months in jail after they were caught attempting to smuggle four Indian migrants into the United Kingdom.
The two British nationals -- Shafaz Khan, 55, and Choudhry Rashied, 58 -- hid the four men behind a stack of used tyres inside a van in a purpose-built compartment, according to the UK Home Office.
On Tuesday, the Isleworth Crown Court sentenced the two men for facilitating a breach of UK immigration law, BBC reported. The border police apprehended Khan and Rashied in March 2019 at the Newhaven Port, East Sussex.
At the time of the incident, Khan, who is from west London's Feltham, told officers that they were travelling back from Belgium, while the rear of their van was filled with used tyres. The officers searched the vehicle and found the migrants in dangerous and squalid conditions.
The officials found the four migrants on a urine-soaked mattress, with no access to fresh air, food or water, said Chris Foster, immigration enforcement lead for London.
"This case displays the lengths people smugglers will go to to disguise their criminal activity. These smugglers exploited a group of individuals by putting them into an unsafe and unlawful situation for their financial gain," said Dame Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum.
Foster noted that Khan and Rashied "sold these vulnerable individuals a dream and promised them a safe journey and prosperous life in the UK, which was far from the truth."
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