{"id":142161,"date":"2024-05-29T15:47:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T22:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=142161"},"modified":"2024-05-29T15:59:27","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T22:59:27","slug":"asylum-seeker-ran-people-smuggling-ring-from-chicken-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/05\/29\/asylum-seeker-ran-people-smuggling-ring-from-chicken-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"Asylum seeker ran people-smuggling ring from chicken shop"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy EasternEye<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>A judge has now ordered him to be extradited to France, where he was convicted of people-smuggling and sentenced to five years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sathasivam Sivagankan, a refugee from Sri Lanka, who was granted asylum in the UK, managed a people-smuggling ring while employed at a chicken shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 58-year-old organised illegal Channel crossings from his rented home, reported&nbsp;<em>The Sun<\/em>&nbsp;quoting the court documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A judge has now ordered him to be extradited to France, where he was convicted of people smuggling and sentenced to five years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The father of two had received indefinite leave to remain in Britain after fleeing the war in Sri Lanka in 2003 with his wife and sons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sivagankan worked part-time at Morley\u2019s chicken shop in Brixton and was a key figure in a gang that smuggled Sri Lankans into several European countries over two years, the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sivagankan was first arrested in London in March 2022 on behalf of French authorities and a judge initially ordered his extradition in November 2022 based on accusations from France,&nbsp;<em>The Sun&nbsp;<\/em>reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sivagankan contested the extradition, citing his wife\u2019s housebound condition requiring him as her caregiver. However, a judge dismissed his claims at Westminster Magistrates\u2019 Court on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Court documents described him as an organiser within a European-wide criminal group operating in many countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In January 2023, Sivagankan was sentenced in his absence by a court in France<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the High Court dismissed the initial extradition warrant in October 2023, a new one was issued the following month based on his conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the newspaper, following Friday\u2019s decision, Sivagankan is on \u00a310,000 bail, under a curfew, and must wear a tag while he awaits extradition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy EasternEye A judge has now ordered him to be extradited to France, where he was convicted of people-smuggling and sentenced to five years in prison. Sathasivam Sivagankan, a refugee from Sri Lanka, who was granted asylum in the UK, managed a people-smuggling ring while employed at a chicken shop. The 58-year-old organised illegal Channel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}