28 h. ago People traffickers sending migrant small boats to West Country beaches in bid to dodge tougher border patrols off Kent coast, police reveal

The Home Office has funded a new fast-response police boat to be based in Devon and Cornwall due to an expected surge in illegal immigration.

Events

30 h. ago Devon and Cornwall police launches new £350,000 boat to stop people traffickers targeting their coastline

The Home Office hopes the vessel will act as a deterrent to organised crime groups and allow officials to intercept and board vessels when dealing with high-level threats.

Events

3 d. ago As US warships prowl the Caribbean, our region must hold fast against Trump’s gaslighting

American attacks have killed more than 14 people they claim were drug traffickers in our waters. Now our islands are at risk of being dragged into a manufactured conflict we are ill-equipped to endureFor decades, the Caribbean has been caught in the slipstream of other people’s wars – from cold war proxy battles to Washington’s “war on drugs” and “war on terror”. Our islands have too often been turned into the frontlines for policies scripted elsewhere but fought in our waters, our communities, and on the backs of our most vulnerable.The recent US naval strikes against alleged “drug boats” leaving Venezuela, and the decision of Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, to grant access to territorial waters without first consulting the Caribbean collective of developing countries, Caricom, risk dragging our islands into yet another manufactured storm. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Six ‘trafficking gang’ suspects accused of bringing women from Romania to Scotland for sex

SIX people are to stand trial accused of trafficking a string of women into Scotland for prostitution. The group are claimed to have been involved in the lucrative crime which saw females brought from Romania mainly into Aberdeen between January 2023 and December last year. Prosecutors claim adverts were put online and arrangements made for...

Events

3 w. ago 7 Chinese sentenced to 20 years each for trafficking and forced labor in South Africa

A court in Johannesburg has sentenced seven Chinese nationals to terms of 20 years in prison each for trafficking people from Malawi and forcing them to work at a factory in South Africa

Politics

3 w. ago Revealed: the huge growth of Myanmar scam centres that may hold 100,000 trafficked people

Operated by crime syndicates and fostered by the country’s military junta, the number of vast complexes such as KK Park on the Thai-Myanmar border has doubled since 2021Five years ago, the land now home to KK Park – a vast, heavily guarded complex stretching for 210 hectares (520 acres) along the churning Moei River that forms Myanmar’s border with Thailand – was little more than empty fields.Set against rugged mountains south of the town of Myawaddy, KK Park, with its on-site hospital, restaurants, bank and neat lines of villas with manicured lawns, looks more like the campus of a Silicon Valley tech company than what is really is: the frontline of a multibillion-dollar criminal fraud industry fuelled by human trafficking and brutal violence. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Republican slams Vance for ‘despicable’ comments on Venezuelan boat strike

Rand Paul blasts ‘thoughtless’ comment after vice-president defends strike against alleged drug traffickersThe Republican senator who heads the homeland security committee has criticized JD Vance for “despicable” comments apparently in support of extrajudicial military killings.“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” the vice-president said in an X post on Saturday, in defense of Tuesday’s US military strike against a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea, which killed 11 people the administration alleged were drug traffickers. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Republican condemns Vance for ‘despicable’ comments on Venezuelan boat strike

Rand Paul decries ‘thoughtless’ comment after vice-president defends strike against alleged drug traffickersThe Republican senator who heads the homeland security committee has criticized JD Vance for “despicable” comments apparently in support of extrajudicial military killings.“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” the vice-president said in an X post on Saturday, in defense of Tuesday’s US military strike against a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea, which killed 11 people the administration alleged were drug traffickers. Continue reading...

Politics