LONDON: Two men have each been jailed for more than four years for smuggling 18 Albanian migrants into the UK.
They were caught as the group, including two children, were rescued from their sinking inflatable boat a mile-and-a-half off Kent in May.
Immigration officials said the Albanians were in a “perilous” state without life jackets and facing potential death. Each of the migrants had paid £5,000 to make the trip.
At Maidstone Crown Court, Robert Stilwell, 33, a former judo champion from Greenhithe, Kent, was jailed for four years and four months
Mark Stribling, 35, from Farningham, Kent, was jailed for four years and eight months.
Both had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration into the UK.
The court was told they were hired by others and were each paid £2,000 to make the trip. The judge said a tragedy had been avoided by a whisker.
They initially told the authorities they had been fishing and had rescued the migrants.
Dave Fairclough, who led the immigration enforcement investigation, said: “This was a particularly callous attempt to smuggle people into the UK.
“We often talk about people smugglers treating individuals as commodities. To my mind, that is exactly how Stilwell and Stribling regarded their passengers.
“They were not human beings, they were cargo, and as such did not merit life jackets for a dangerous night crossing, in poor conditions in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.”
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