National Crime Agency will have a base in Poland for the first time. Follows concerns country is a ‘hotspot’ for people-smuggling operations. Vietnam, China, Albania and Nigeria will also have UK police bases. ‘This is organised crime and that is what the NCA is set up to tackle,’ David Armond, director of the NCA’s Border Policing Command, said.
Revelation: Concerns over criminal gangs using Poland as a base for people-smuggling have meant officers from the National Crime Agency will be based in the country for the first time
Criminal gangs are using Poland as a base for smuggling under-age prostitutes, professional benefit cheats and sham brides into Britain.
Concerns that the country has become a ‘hotspot’ for people-smuggling operations mean that officers from the new National Crime Agency will be based in Poland for the first time.
They have been given instructions to hunt down the gangmasters responsible before their victims can reach our shores.
Poland is one of five ‘priority’ countries identified by the Home Office and the NCA. Vietnam, China, Albania and Nigeria will also have UK police bases.
The former Eastern bloc country is attractive for gangs trying to bring in under-age prostitutes and other sex workers because of its EU membership – granting its citizens full access to the UK.
It is also at the heart of other scams, such as sending Polish women to the UK to take part in ‘sham weddings’ to non-EU citizens they have never even met.
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