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IRISH AND BRITISH police forces have begun to work together to target the illegal trade in fake documents as Ireland is being used as a backdoor into post-Brexit Britain.
The Journal has learned that organised crime groups from Georgia and Albania are running a major people-smuggling operation through Ireland for people who desperately want to get into the UK.
Security sources have said that the crime gangs are providing forged Italian and Slovakian identity documents and, at times, fake British passports to exploit the common travel zone between Ireland and Britain.
This means that people from Albania and Georgia, predominantly, who want to get into the UK but are not able to do so legally, are paying crime groups from that country up to £5,000 to travel first to Ireland on forged identity papers and then, via the common travel area, into the UK.
Britain’s Minister for Immigration Compliance and Justice, Chris Philips, said that UK authorities are set to draft legislation to combat the problem.
The Common Travel Area agreement between both countries was established in 1922 and reaffirmed in 2019.
“This has a Brexit side to it. The free travel across EU borders into UK has been halted so essentially the crime groups are exploiting the Irish/UK common travel area which is in existence since the 1920s,” said a source with knowledge of the situation.
People are being stopped at points of entry such as airports and ports by gardaí and Department of Justice staff, the source said.
Security forces believe that the main motivation for the migrants is economic but it is also allowing some criminal elements scope to move around unchecked.
“Once the fake documents are picked up there are two options: they are refused leave to land and they are immediately returned to the airport they originated from, or they claim asylum and the documents are sent to the Irish documents section for investigation.
“If they are sent back to their country of origin the documents are returned to that country’s authorities in the possession of the captain of the flight and the investigation takes place there. Gardaí then notify the authorities on the other side.
“The aim of all this activity for these people is to get into the UK. That is their biggest aim and border enforcement in Ireland find that it is mostly people from Albania and Georgia. The gang involved in giving the documents will give them pointers on how to get through.
“There is a lot of evidence that the ploy is for them to claim asylum when they are caught and then they disappear by skipping across the border into Northern Ireland,” the source said.
“The people who are coming in would be fairly desperate and they want to get to the UK because they see that as the promised land for them.
“The gangs are charging anything from £500 to £5000,” a source added.
Sources have said that one key failing in the system is the Interpol FIND scanner, which is used to scan passports at entry gates in airports and ports, can only detects documents that have been reported lost or stolen.
“This is a huge issue – it doesn’t detect potential forgeries, that has to be done by the officer at the desk and some of these documents would be very good fakes.
“The new Schengen system, which allows gardaí to communicate and access Europe-wide information, may be able to deal with finding forgeries but law enforcement like this is only as good as the tools they are given.
The recent joint garda and British border enforcement operation where there were arrests in Leeds, Dublin and Wicklow is driven by British authorities who are trying to crack down on this illegal movement post-Brexit, a source explained.
In April three men were arrested under anti-organised crime legislation in raids by Garda National Immigration Bureau detectives on six properties in Dublin and Wicklow. There were simultaneous raids in the UK and it is understood it was initiated by UK intelligence.
British authorities told The Journal that the operation on 28 April was intelligence-led and that they have charged two people in Leeds with possession of fake documents and entering the country via Ireland.
Chris Philip, the British Minister for Immigration Compliance and Justice, said that UK authorities are bringing in new laws to combat the problem.
“We are determined to go after the callous people who facilitate illegal entry into the UK. We continue to work with law enforcement agencies to ensure that those who carry out these illegal acts are put before the courts and face justice.
“As part of the New Plan for Immigration announced by the Home Secretary recently we proposed increased sentences in the UK for the facilitation of illegal entry to act as a further deterrent to these criminals,” he said.
Can they not just take €5 a week of his dole and forget about it.
Any room on that walk for a few Irish Politicans. They conned us out of 35 billion for Anglo Irish bank
The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/03/financial-sector-greatest-parasite-human-history.html
“There is one issue whose role I think is overlooked in the mainstream media: the role the financial sector plays in exacerbating income inequality. In fact, I believe the financial sector is one of the prime causes, and at its current point is perhaps the greatest parasite in human history. It is sucking wealth from the productive sectors of the economy at an unprecedented rate…… The job of the finance sector is simply to manage existing resources. It creates nothing. Therefore, the smaller the financial sector is the more real wealth there is for the rest of society to enjoy. The bigger the financial sector becomes the more money it siphons off from the productive sectors.”
“The role the financial sector plays in exacerbating income inequality” – people and their selfish aims exacerbate inequality, the financial sector just happens to be a useful tool at present. In times past, birthrights and titles were used, in Ireland education levels are used and this is perceived to be justified, religion/race/nationality have all previously been used.
People are selfish, and in terms of wealth a great many people value relative wealth higher than real wealth. And even if the financial sector was massively altered or even disbanded, people would just find new ways to express and maintain their perceived superiority.
People once maintained their perceived superiority through slavery in the cotton fields but this obscenity was eventually dismantled.
The system which sees the 85 richest people in the world holding the same wealth as the poorest 3,500,000,000 also needs to be addressed and the financial sector is a major part of that problem.
At a guess, those 85 families were probably among the largest slave owners back in those days. Systems change, nobility remain.
France 1798?
What happened then? Some nobels finally put to death 9 years after the revolution :-P (only messing, easy mistake to make). But the French Revolution just succeeded in changing the nobility really, with Napoleon becoming emperor and his people being granted dynasties and principalities all over Europe. Seems self-interest & human selfishness could not be guillotined!
A tipping point is coming and the rich know it. The internet has allowed people access to information they never would have had before and this unsettles the upper classes as they rely on misinformation and propaganda to maintain their wealth and privilege and they rely on people not to question that information but the tables are turning slowly but surely and in the next few years i think it will finally spill over.People need to think for themselves.
The French Revolution was one of many steps towards moving western society towards eventual democracy. One of purposes of democracy to limit the power of the ‘nobility’ as you call them which is why those elites try to circumvent or subvert democracy at every opportunity.
They don’t try to circumvent and subvert democracy, they succeed with frightening regularity! What hope would a British political party stand if one of their pre-election promises was to break Murdoch’s hold on the media? Or an Australian party promising to come down hard on mining companies in relation to taxes and environmental responsibilities? Or in the US trying to take on Big Oil?
I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying, but the financial system is but one tool used to keep the elite in their opulent lifestyles. And if something happens that it no longer serves this purpose for the elite, they will just use media, jobs, political pressure etc. to ensure they maintain their status. I don’t like it anymore than you, but it has been going on for generations and I have little hope my great grandchildren won’t be trying to find ways to make society more equal, life more fair, and the obscenely wealthy less influential!
I disagree. People are not inherently selfish, it’s the complex socio-economic/political systems in which we live that promote selfishness as something desirable. And it enslaves us. Freedom is equal to your needs.
That said, I agree with the main thrust of what you’re saying.
“Kerviel says his superiors turned a blind eye as long as his transactions made money” – very little doubt that this is true, but more fool him for not realising the consequences of his actions. His superiors stood to make if his positions were profitable, and if this was achieved by exceeding limits then those superiors were turning personal profits while Kerviel was taking all the risk (which is why they were turning blind eyes rather than expressly informing him to disregard limits).
It’s a dog eat dog world – I’m sure they loved him while he was making money, but if you’re breaking rules, and do so to take a 50bn long position on equity indices in a company with a market cap around 36bn, then you really should expect previously earned brownie points to be insufficient!
In short, a naive fool, but unlikely the main culprit in this debacle.
1400Km walk from Paris to Rome,
Did he ever think of putting out his Thumb?????
His thumb is probably still stuck in a pie…
Societe are hedging their bets – and are saying that he’ll get between 6 and 10 yrs !
my assistant was looking for form name several days ago and located a great service with lots of sample forms . If you are searching for a form too , here’s a http://pdf.ac/49Mwsy
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