46 foreign criminals and immigration offenders have been returned to Vietnam and Timor-Leste on a groundbreaking charter flight.
The operation is the UK’s first-ever charter return flight to Timor-Leste and the first to Vietnam since 2022.
It comes after the Home Secretary announced this week that she has immediately replaced flight planning for Rwanda with flights to return foreign criminals and immigration offenders who have no right to be here to their home country.
After setting off on Wednesday (24 July), the flight arrived in Timor-Leste at approximately 9am BST today (25 July), having transported the cohort from the UK to the 2 countries in south-east Asia.
The flight highlights the government’s commitment to expanding its returns ability for individuals without the right to remain in the UK and building strong relationships with partner nations in a shared mission to end irregular migration. Vietnam has recently been one of the top nationalities crossing the Channel in small boats.
The operation began on the same day as a gang of British people-smugglers, including a brother and sister, were jailed after trying to hide 2 Vietnamese migrants in a hidden compartment of their campervan.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:
Today’s flight shows the government is taking quick and decisive action to secure our borders and return those with no right to be here.
We thank the governments of Vietnam and Timor-Leste for their co-operation, without which this could never have happened. Our strong diplomatic bonds with other countries have never been more crucial to our mission to bring order back into the asylum and immigration system, tackling irregular migration, and making sure the rules are properly respected and enforced.
Images from the court case show the migrants crammed into the dangerously small crawlspace, less than 1 foot high, as they were transported between the UK and France.
Siblings Natalie Sirrell and Alan Sirrell, Casey Dennis Loughnane, and Charlotte Smyth have been sentenced after a hearing at Canterbury Crown Court.
The court heard how on 19 July 2020, Border Force officers conducted a search of a campervan bound for the UK in Coquelles, France. During the search, they found 2 Vietnamese nationals concealed underneath a bed.
Driving the van was Natalie Sirrell, with Charlotte Smyth in the passenger seat. Both were arrested at the scene.
An investigation led officers to identify Alan Sirrell, Loughnane and Benjamin Tokeley as further members of the smuggling operation.
Alan Sirrell was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars and Loughnane to four and a half years after being found guilty at trial of conspiring to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law.
Natalie Sirrell was sentenced to 2 years suspended, electronic monitoring and a £500 fine, and Smyth to 2 years suspended after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to the same offence. Credit was given by the judge due to the length of time passed to reach court, and for early pleas from Natalie Sirrell and Smyth.
Tokeley pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing and is due to be sentenced separately at a later date.
Home Office Criminal and Financial Investigation Lead for the North East Command, Stuart Wilkinson said:
Today’s sentencing is the result of strong collaboration between agencies to bring another people-smuggling ring to justice.
Our teams will continue to work tirelessly to secure our borders and clamp down on the gangs who heartlessly endanger vulnerable people to make money. I am enormously grateful for the tireless efforts of the officers involved in this case.
