Dutch Court Convicts Chinese People-smugglers

The Netherlands' role as a staging post for thousands of UK-bound illegal Chinese immigrants was underscored yesterday after a Dutch court convicted seven members of one of Europe's biggest human trafficking gangs of smuggling people into Britain.

A Rotterdam court found two of the seven Chinese defendants guilty of helping to organise the tragic passage of the "Dover 58" who suffocated to death in the back of a lorry in June 2000, but acquitted the gang's alleged ringleader of involvement in the incident.

Nine people have already been jailed for their parts in the Dover tragedy, including the Dutch lorry driver, who was jailed for 14 years.

However, the court said yesterday that the Dover incident was just one of many such trips and found all seven gang members guilty of masterminding the transit of thousands of illegal immigrants from rural China to the UK.

It imposed jail sentences of between 18 months and six years.

The presiding judge, Pauline Hofmeyer, identified a woman known as Jing Ping Chen or "Sister P" as the senior figure in the gang.

A statement from one witness called Chen "a dangerous woman, the snake's head of the entire Dutch smuggling operation".

As one of Europe's most successful people smugglers she was expected to be given a stiff prison term but in the event was only given a three year sentence and fined £9,000.

Conversely, the court reserved its harshest tariff - six years - for a man identified as Mr Yu who was found guilty of complicity in the Dover transport.

Prosecutors, who had demanded 10-year jail terms for some of the suspects, said that they would appeal for tougher jail terms. Chen's lawyers also vowed to appeal.

Immigrants paid the gang up to £20,000 each to travel to the Netherlands and then faced a further fee of up to £8,000 in order to cross the Channel.