African man who helped smuggle more than 3,000 people into Europe jailed
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An Egyptian fisherman who helped organise the movement of more than 3,000 migrants as part of a £12 million illegal boat crossing operation has been jailed for 25 years.
UK-based Ahmed Ebid, 42, was involved in smuggling nearly 3,800 people from North Africa to Italy between October 2022 and June 2023, with some making their way to Britain, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Ebid is the first person in the UK to be convicted of being involved in people smuggling across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Italy.
He arrived in the UK on a small boat in 2022 after spending five years in jail in Italy for attempted drug smuggling. He applied for asylum in the UK but never received a decision.
That meant he had been in legal limbo, neither facing removal nor being granted permission to stay. His sentence means he will almost certainly be deported once it has been served.
Ebid, whose wife and sons are in the UK, had been living in Home Office-funded accommodation in south-west London at the time of his arrest.
At his sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, the judge said Ebid ruthlessly exploited desperate individuals and his “primary motivation was to make money out of human trafficking”.
“The treatment of migrants was horrifying,” Judge Adam Hiddleston said.
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