LONDON: The convicted ringleader of a “prolific” Kurdish people-smuggling gang, on the run when he was sentenced in absentia last month to eight years in prison, has been arrested, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said Saturday.
Tarik Namik, 45, of Oldham near Manchester, northwest England, was detained on Friday after landing at Manchester Airport on a flight from Istanbul.
Police had issued a warrant for his arrest following his no-show at Manchester Crown Court last month, when he was convicted of heading a “sophisticated, lucrative criminal enterprise” smuggling Kurdish migrants.
Working with traffickers abroad, the group is suspected of smuggling at least 1,900 migrants who were picked up in the Balkans and brought to France or Germany during a 50-day period.
The gang then offered different means for trying to enter Britain, where the migrants would claim asylum.
Kurdish criminal groups control the increasingly lucrative cross-Channel illegal migration routes, using both lorries and, more recently, small boats to cross the busy shipping lane, according to the NCA.
A surge in the small vessel crossings since 2017 has led to tens of thousands of migrants now arriving annually on England’s southeastern coast, rather than stowed away in trucks.
Alongside Namik, four other men — based in Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Nottingham — received sentences ranging from 16 months to nearly five years for their role in the criminal scheme.
All five had admitted the charges against them at previous hearings.
Namik was to appear Saturday before Manchester magistrates before being formally sentenced at the city’s crown court on Monday.
“Namik was a prolific people smuggler whose crime group put vulnerable migrants at great risk while he reaped the profits,” said NCA Branch Commander Richard Harrison.
“Fugitives never come off our radar, and I’d like to thank our colleagues at Greater Manchester Police for their assistance in ensuring he was detained quickly the moment he set foot back in the UK.”
Fugitive head of people-smuggling gang nabbed on return to UK
https://arab.news/ryxej
Fugitive head of people-smuggling gang nabbed on return to UK
- Tarik Namik, 45, of Oldham near Manchester, northwest England, was detained on Friday after landing at Manchester Airport
- Police had issued a warrant for his arrest following his no-show at Manchester Crown Court last month
Britain needs ‘AI stress tests’ for financial services, lawmakers say
- Lawmakers urge AI-specific stress tests for financial firms
LONDON: Britain’s financial watchdogs are not doing enough to stop artificial intelligence from harming consumers or destabilising markets, a cross-party group of lawmakers said on Tuesday, urging regulators to move away from what it called a “wait and see” approach.
In a report on AI in financial services, the Treasury Committee said the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England should start running AI-specific stress tests to help firms prepare for market shocks triggered by automated systems.
The committee also called on the FCA to publish detailed guidance by the end of 2026 on how consumer protection rules apply to AI, and on the extent to which senior managers should be expected to understand the systems they oversee.
“Based on the evidence I’ve seen, I do not feel confident that our financial system is prepared if there was a major AI-related incident and that is worrying,” committee chair Meg Hillier said in a statement.
TECHNOLOGY CARRIES ‘SIGNIFICANT RISKS’
A race among banks to adopt agentic AI, which unlike generative AI can make decisions and take autonomous action, runs new risks for retail customers, the FCA told Reuters late last year.
About three-quarters of UK financial firms now use AI. Companies are deploying the technology across core functions, from processing insurance claims to performing credit assessments.
While the report acknowledged the benefits of AI, it warned the technology also carried “significant risks” including opaque credit decisions, the potential exclusion of vulnerable consumers through algorithmic tailoring, fraud, and the spread of unregulated financial advice through AI chatbots.
Experts contributing to the report also highlighted threats to financial stability, pointing to the reliance on a small group of US tech giants for AI and cloud services. Some also noted that AI-driven trading systems may amplify herding behavior in markets, risking a financial crisis in a worst-case scenario.
An FCA spokesperson said the regulator welcomed the focus on AI and would review the report. The regulator has previously indicated it does not favor AI-specific rules due to the pace of technological change.
The BoE did not respond to a request for comment.
Hillier told Reuters that increasingly sophisticated forms of generative AI were influencing financial decisions. “If something has gone wrong in the system, that could have a very big impact on the consumer,” she said.
Separately, Britain’s finance ministry appointed Starling Bank CIO Harriet Rees and Lloyds Banking Group ‘s Rohit Dhawan as “AI Champions” to help steer AI adoption in financial services.
