London, Aug 28: Britain's newly constituted National Crime Squad claimed to have burst an Indian immigration racket with the arrest of 13 persons involved in smuggling people from India, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
An official of the squad told today that officers from the National Crime Squad's immigration crime team raided six addresses in the West midlands yesterday in connection with the suspected facilitation of illegal immigrants into the UK.
"Thirteen people have been arrested, five of them for conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigrants into the UK. The other people are illegal immigrants and one failed asylum seeker," he added.
"Three residential addresses were visited in Wolverhampton and west Bromwich, as well as a meat processing plant in Hockley, and an Indian shop/catering establishment in Wolverhampton."
He said five of the thirteen arrested were suspected of the facilitation of illegal migrants from India's Punjab, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan into the UK by providing false or forged documentation.

It is believed they were involved in fraudulently obtaining work permits for immigrants from Amritsar, ostensibly to perform as singers and dancers in Asian pubs and social clubs in Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
Bureau Report