Slovak man jailed for smuggling Vietnamese woman into UK

Jozef Balog, 33, was sentenced to two and a half years behind bars by a court for assisting unlawful immigration, on Jan. 16, the U.K. Embassy in Vietnam announced.

Jozef Balog when he was arrested. Photo by the British Embassy in Vietnam

In June 2022, police of the U.K. Border Force stopped Balog, a Slovakian national, at the border of France and the U.K. for regular checking.

He claimed to be returning to his home in Manchester after visiting relatives in his home country.

When searching the vehicle, officers noticed suspicious signs inside a custom-built hideaway behind the car’s glove box.

When removing that glovebox, they found a Vietnamese woman in cramped conditions.

It was later confirmed that she was an illegal immigrant.

A Vietnamese woman was found hiding in a car to be smuggled into the U.K., June 2022. Photo by British Embassy in Vietnam

Steve Blackwell, Deputy Director of Criminal and Financial Investigations at the Home Office, said: “This is a truly shocking case that shows the callous disregard these criminals have for the lives and safety of the vulnerable people they exploit.”

Balog, who currently lives in Manchester, had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing in June 2022.

In the first half of 2023, 52,530 illegal migrants were detected trying to enter the U.K., up 17% on-year, according to the U.K.’s government data.

Many people willingly pay human smuggling rings to smuggle themselves into the U.K., or other European countries, to then find an illegal job, which in some cases, can bring them large sums of money to send home after a few years.

The British government last year passed a new law, saying that illegal immigrants would be temporarily detained and eventually sent to a third country or the country of origin, hoping that the policy would prevent human trafficking to the U.K.