People smuggler jailed over small boats operation

A "prolific" people smuggler who played a key role in a £1.5m operation to transport migrants across the English Channel in small boats has been jailed for four years and 10 months.

Pistiwan Jameel, from Birmingham, referred to migrants as "pigeons" and "sticks" and used his contacts with gangs in northern France to arrange journeys for clients, his trial had heard.

The 55-year-old was arrested after helping Albanian national Artan Halilaj to smuggle relative Fiorentino Halilaj into the UK in September 2023.

At Birmingham Crown Court in November, Jameel was found guilty of two counts of facilitating illegal immigration.

He was sentenced at the same court on Monday alongside Artan Halilaj, of no fixed address, and Fiorentino Halilaj, of Crosslands in Southall, London, who were both found guilty on one count of the same offence.

Artan Halilaj, 40, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, and Fiorentino Halilaj, 26, to two years and six months.

Surveillance officers observed Jameel meeting with Artan Halilaj in Birmingham in September 2023, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said following last year's conviction.

It stated that following the meeting, during which cash was handed over, Jameel made a phone call and was heard saying of passengers: "All good to go, all okay."

The trial had heard that Fiorentino Halilaj crossed the Channel in a "rigid inflatable boat" the next day before immigration authorities took possession of his phone, which was handed to the NCA and found to have Jameel's number in the contacts, saved under the name "Alan".

Sentencing, Judge Heidi Kubik said it was clear Jameel was involved in the operation as a "commercial enterprise".

"You were a UK contact for people to make arrangements to bring others over to join them illegally in the UK", she told him.

Judge Kubik acknowledged that while he was not "at the very top of the chain of command", evidence on Jameel's phone which included images of 40 passports, 30 of which had been connected to individuals brought over in small boats, asserted that he was involved in an operation for "some scale of profit".

She said small boat crossings posed a risk to the lives of those on the journey and to UK citizens as "we need to know who is here".

She added that such crossings also fed the black market economy.

Prosecutors told the court that Fiorentino Halilaj intended to "emulate" his brother-in-law Artan Halilaj, who entered the UK by small boat in March 2022, and "find work in the UK without permission to do so".

Fiorentino Halilaj's defence counsel said he had completed courses in prison and volunteered to go home to Albania.

"He simply wants to get back home," the court heard. "He has learnt a real lesson as a result of his offending.

"He never wants to set foot on English soil again."

Artan Halilaj's defence, Rebecca Coleman, said his involvement was limited to handover of cash for his brother-in-law's journey and there was no personal commercial gain for him.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Kubik said: "In each of your cases it will be a matter for the Home Office as to whether you are released or transferred to an immigration centre for detention."

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