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Last year 1,037 people were detained here. The decrease is being linked to a clamp down on people-smugglers. West Flanders has been battling people-traffickers who attempt to bring in migrants to the UK by lorry via the continent for some time.
The latest figures also show fewer people-traffickers are active in the province. This is being linked to the harsher sentences for people-trafficking being meted out by Belgian courts.
Fewer illegal migrants making their way to the UK via West Flanders does not mean that the problem has been sorted. People-traffickers are now trying to get migrants on board lorries at car parks before these reach the coastal province of West Flanders. The Governor of West Flanders Carl Decaluwé, “We’ve noticed that the problem has shifted inland along the E40 Ostend Brussels motorway.”
A working party has been set up to look at the issue across the provincial frontiers. A new, joint co-ordinated operation against people-trafficking is expected soon.