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Police raided 19 locations in and around Brussels early Saturday morning.
200 illegal immigrants were found, most of them young men from India. In one raid in Vilvoorde (a town to the north of Brussels) police rounded up some 50 Indian nationals who were in a Sikh temple.
Saturday’s roundup was the result of an investigation lasting almost a year. A people-smuggling ring is thought to have been operating in Belgium for the past year and a half. Hundreds of illegal immigrants from India and Pakistan have allegedly been smuggled through Belgium into the UK. The traffickers allegedly made hundreds of thousands of euros on the operation.
Britain is a top destination for immigrants of Indian and Pakistani origin, because because there is already a large community in the UK, allowing the new immigrants to blend in quite easily. According to Reuter’s press agency, British immigration minister Phil Woolas has vowed to crack-down in the face of rising unemployment in Britain.
[flandersnews.be / Expatica]