Woman who helped arrange Channel crossings jailed

Ujeza Kurmekaj has been jailed for seven and a half years, and will be deported at the end of her sentence

A woman who acted as a fixer for cross-Channel people smugglers has been jailed.

Albanian national Ujeza Kurmekaj, who lived in Banbury, Oxfordshire, pleaded guilty to facilitating illegal immigration at Oxford Crown Court.

National Crime Agency (NCA) officers linked her to people smuggling through hundreds of texts found on her phone.

She will be deported at the end of her seven-and-a-half year prison sentence.

After she was arrested in October 2022, investigators found she had sent instructions to contacts in France detailing who they should pick up.

Other messages talked about conditions in the English Channel, including one which said: "Very bad sea."

There were also map location pins instructing smugglers where to pick migrants up or where boats were positioned in the Channel.

The NCA also said her phone contained 21 images of Albanian ID cards and passports which, when checked, showed nine of the individuals had arrived in the UK by small boats.

Kurmekaj's phone was linked to the people smuggling operations

Andy MacGill, NCA senior investigating officer, said: “Ujeza Kurmekaj played a major role as a broker, linking migrants with people smugglers who could transport them on dangerous journeys across the Channel.

“For this, she would arrange payments of hundreds of euros per person.

“Kurmekaj had little interest in the safety and security of the people she was arranging crossings for, only that she and her employers received payment."

Kurmekaj was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court last Friday.