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A 'Firm Grip' on human smuggling

The extent to which South Asia is involved in smuggling of humans to the United States and other Western countries has been revealed in a massive multinational effort against international human smuggling led by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Acting INS Commissioner Kevin Rooney announced on Wednesday the successful completion of Operation Firm Grip, part of a series of operations designed to disrupt the activities of alien smugglers worldwide.

The operation, the most geographically diverse of its kind to date, ran from May 29 to June 18 and focused largely on airports. It resulted in the interception of 415 people destined for the US and other Western countries. The bulk of the arrests were of individuals from the subcontinent.

Sri Lanka topped the number of nationals arrested with 98, with China in second place with 61, and India a close third with 59. The nationalities of 48 persons were unknown, Pakistan was fifth with 30, and Bangladesh sixth with 17.

The INS said Operation Firm Grip was a coordinated effort by the agency -- working with host country law enforcement organisations and airline security officers -- to target global alien smugglers in Colombo, Bombay, New Delhi, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Amsterdam and Singapore.

It said the three-week operation had been carried out to identify and prosecute alien smugglers and prevent them from bringing their human cargo through participating countries and on to the United States.

According to the INS, it was the first such operation to include a large European gateway airport, Schiphol in Amsterdam, in conjunction with airports in South Asia. It was also the first operation to include a large Asian gateway airport, Don Muang International in Bangkok, with South Asian and European airports, and to assess and interdict the simultaneous movement of illegal migrants in both eastward and westward directions.

Rooney said the key to the successful operation was the co-operation of liaison officers from Western countries with similar illegal immigration problems and the leading role of national police agencies and immigration officials from the six participating countries.

The operation, which involved 18 INS agents and more than 100 law enforcement officers from participating countries, was conducted mainly through screening of passengers of 839 flights at major international airports.

Of the 415 individuals intercepted, 118 were taken into custody by local police officers for various offences, including impersonation, possession of fraudulent or altered travel documents, and alien smuggling. During the operation, 45 people were arrested while smuggling humans, while agents, in addition, intercepted 337 counterfeit, fraudulent or altered documents.

Most of the false documents seized were photo-substitution passports, counterfeit foreign visas, counterfeit passports, altered foreign visas, altered passports, and altered foreign refugee travel documents.

The INS said Operation Firm Grip had trained 193 individuals at seven locations in fraudulent document identification and immigration screening techniques at the request of local enforcement and airline security staffs.

Rooney said Operation Firm Grip "demonstrates the effectiveness of international co-operation in attacking global crime".

"When nations work together, we can achieve remarkable results in combating one of the great, great problems we have today of human smuggling," he added.

Rooney warned that this "multibillion-dollar industry", where humans wanting to be smuggled to the US and other Western countries pay as much as $3,000 to $5,000 each, "is becoming increasingly sophisticated and is often intertwined with other criminal activities".

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