Immigration issues affecting the UK

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• Immigration issues affecting the UK the
  strategic importance of partnerships

Dave Harrison, Deputy Director IND Intelligence
Service (INDIS)
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UK Context

• Migration beneficial to UK economy
• Existing vacancies in key sectors
• Managed migration to be combined with tough
  enforcement action
• Important to assist legal migration
• Enhance border security combined with rapid
  robust processing of applications
• Points based system

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Organised Immigration Crime UK Perspective

• Motivated by profit
• Technically sophisticated
• Exploit loopholes between legal jurisdictions and
  weak legislation
• Impact on local communities
• Use existing skills and infrastructure
• Cross ethnic boundaries
• Exploit unlimited supply of human cargo

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Challenges

• Global problem facing us all
• Common difficulties
• - Source countries
• - transit countries
• - repatriation returns
• - law enforcement difficulties

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Key UK nationalities

• Afghanistan
• Bangladesh
• China
• Democratic Republic Congo
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• India

• Iran
• Iraq
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Somalia
• Sudan
• Turkey
• Zimbabwe

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Measuring Harm
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IND Intelligence Service

• To identify, prioritise and monitor threats to
  the immigration control and facilitate targeted
  action to counter abuse through the development
  and timely use of intelligence

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REFLEX UK Multi-agency task force

• Targets criminals behind people smuggling and
  human trafficking by seeking to
• Reduce criminal profits
• Raise the risks the gangs must take and
• Reduce their opportunities to exploit
• Shared strategy, objectives and targets
• An end-to-end approach
• Complements wider government strategy on asylum
  immigration

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Capacity Building

• Importance of joint working sharing best
  practice
• Joint Debriefing Team
• Intelligence Analysis
• Forgery Examination
• Legislation
• Specialist units to target OIC
• Successes Malta, Greece, Slovenia, Bosnia,
  Serbia Montenegro, Italy ..

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Sharing Intelligence - debriefing

• INDIS Joint Debriefing Team Reflex funded
• Liaison with counterparts in Slovenian and
  Croatian LEA continues.
• UK officers have advised on debriefing
  individuals in detention centre at Postonja.
• Visited the centres for asylum seekers in
  Ljubljana.
• Further exchanges would be beneficial
  particularly to pursue debriefing
• Debriefing in the UK has identified Slovenian
  telephone numbers that may be of significance.
• Importance of sharing intelligence

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Intelligence in Action
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Current Operation

• SLOVENIA IMPORTANT
• TRANSIT POINT

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Key Features

• Uses Shadow business
• Exploits entry into Kosovo
• Exploits open detention of asylum-seekers in
  Slovenia
• Cross-border LEA/Intelligence co-operation

• Asian Migrants
• Asian Principals
• Local Principals
• Substantial network of safe houses
• Key contacts within airline system
• Movements into Italy

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Gaps

• Language capability
• Intelligence development in the Balkans
• Onward movement within EU
• Asian associations
• Post-disruption issues, displacement etc

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Operation Bladed
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Operational Summary (1)

• Working in partnership with NCIS.
• Disseminated to Croatia and Slovenian operational
  teams June 2005.
• The organised Crime Group (OCG) arranges
  facilitation of mainly Turkish, Iraqi and Iranian
  nationals to Western Europe and UK using a
  variety of methods.
• The OCG has members in source, transit and final
  destination countries.
• Associated partners based in Croatia, Slovenia,
  Bosnia, Serbia, Romania, Kosovo, Italy, Germany,
  France, Belgium and the UK
• Languages spoken by the OCG are Turkish, Sorani
  and Croatian.

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Operational Summary (2)

• Routes used by this OCG
• Istanbul, Kosovo Belgrade across the green border
  into Bosnia or Croatia
• From Zagreb they are collected by lorries in the
  Dubrava area and moved clandestinely into
  Slovenia and on to Austria or Italy
• Significant opportunities for intelligence
  development in Croatia and Slovenia which have
  been supported by an EU wide arrest strategy.

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Prosenjakovci
Postojna
Slovenia and Croatia are predominately used as
transit countries for the process of
facilitation, providing camps (Prosenjakovci and
Postojna have been identified) and contacts for a
successful continuation in the journey further
west
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Green border routes are used in preference to
using official crossings into Croatia and
Slovenia. Documentation is required only by
departure from Turkey
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Targeting Criminal Infrastructure Op Cacadil -
Gangmaster providing illegal employment.

• Target - Victor Solomka Ukrainian national with
  ILR - resident in UK since 1998
• Sophisticated network providing labour to fish
  factories and agricultural industries
• Over 700 employees identified - estimated profits
  over 5m
• Arrested for providing illegal employment, income
  tax evasion and facilitation offences
• Sentenced to 7 years
• Application to confiscate assets under POCA

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Future Challenges

• Targeting organised immigration crime through
  improved intelligence is essential to combat
  irregular migration
• Joint working to ensure optimum disruption and
  dismantling of networks
• Identify money flows
• Effective De-briefing
• Strengthen structures and legislation
• Demonstrate Success

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• INDIS
• IND Intelligence Service
• Status Park