The trial of 31 Afghan men accused of being involved in a major human trafficking network has begun in the Belgian city of Antwerp. Prosecutors say members of the network abused migrants who were unable to pay smuggling fees by torturing, beating and imprisoning them, and that some victims were also sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n
Investigations into the group began three years ago. According to prosecutors, it was a well-organised operation whose leaders managed the smuggling from Afghanistan’s Baghlan province. The network’s base and financial dealings were in Antwerp, Belgium, where migrants were detained before being transferred to their next destination.<\/p>\n
The network mainly smuggled men from Afghanistan, Turkey and Pakistan, but women, children and infants were also among the victims. Smugglers used social media to promise passage to Britain to migrants whose asylum claims had been rejected in Belgium. Holding sites in camps in France, as well as routes through Serbia and Hungary, were also used for transfers.<\/p>\n
The smugglers exposed migrants to highly dangerous conditions; small, overcrowded boats, a lack of adequate safety equipment and threats with firearms, including Kalashnikov rifles, were among the group’s methods. Offences committed by the group also included torture, sexual abuse, filming the abuse of underage boys, and using drugs to sedate victims.<\/p>\n
Most of the defendants have been released under electronic monitoring or on bail, and only a few remain in prison. Belgian prosecutors have requested prison sentences of up to 15 years for the leaders of the network, with the total sentence sought exceeding 230 years. They have also asked for more than 3 million euros in illegal proceeds to be confiscated.<\/p>\n
The court’s verdict is expected after the month of Qaws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Belgium has begun trying 31 Afghan men accused of running a major human trafficking network that abused migrants and smuggled them to Britain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-security-incidents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}