BARNSLEY Central MP Dan Jarvis joined immigration enforcement officers on an early morning raid to arrest a number of people smuggling suspects this week.

On Tuesday, officers raided premises in Cheltenham, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Bradford.

They arrested six Botswana nationals - five men and one woman - on suspicion of smuggling migrants into the UK.( The suspected criminal gang is believed to have smuggled more than 200 Botswana nationals into the UK illegally over two years.

Once in the country, it is believed they helped those migrants to submit false asylum claims using false documents to fraudulently legalise the migrants’ stay in the country.

They are also believed to have assisted the migrants to illegally work in care homes, working with the most vulnerable without adequate training or medical expertise.( Dan joined the officers on one of these raids where arrests were made as part of the government’s mission to dismantle the criminal people-smuggling gangs and secure the UK’s borders. ( He said: “I want to commend the dedication and professionalism of our criminal investigators and Immigration Enforcement officers for these significant arrests.

“Their tireless efforts have disrupted the criminal networks that profit from exploiting vulnerable individuals and undermining our immigration system. ( “Through operations like this, we will use the full force of the law against those who try to undermine our laws and our borders.

“Law enforcement teams work day and night to protect our communities from harm and secure our borders.

“These arrests are a testament to their hard work and commitment. ( “The government continues its relentless work to tackle illegal migration and the criminal gangs behind them, and we will continue to restore order to the broken asylum system we inherited from the last government.”(