Two jailed after exploitation at asylum charity

30 Oct 2020 News

The couple behind the Birmingham charity Freedom to Stay have been sentenced to jail, after a police investigation into their exploitation of migrants.

Pranvera Smith and Flamur Daka, who established the charity in 2014 claiming it would help asylum seekers from Albania, were actually “traffickers and abusers” who mistreated vulnerable people, West Midlands Police said.

The Charity Commission removed the charity from its register in June this year.

Fraud over lottery grant

Freedom to Stay was supposedly founded to help Albanian asylum seekers in the UK navigate the benefits and care system. Its charitable objectives promised the charity would help with “advancing [asylum seekers] in life and assisting them with the adaption within a new community”.

However, Smith and Daka were arrested after police connected them to people trafficking.

They admitted to immigration and drugs charges, as well as fraud relating to a £10,000 grant the charity won from the National Lottery Community Fund.

The police said that the charity’s finances showed it had made at least £130,000 in the first six months of 2020 alone through charging victims for supposedly “free” advice.

Exploited

Many migrants who came to the charity for help ended up working in car washes and cannabis farms, the police added, while Smith and Daka were also found to have trafficked people to the UK from Albania in trucks.

Police linked the pair to one Albanian man who was rescued from the back of a truck in the Belgian port of Ghent this July.

Smith was sentenced to five years and four months in jail yesterday at Birmingham Crown Court. Daka was sentenced to four years.

‘Charged upwards of £1,000 for “charity” services’

Detective Chief Inspector Will Henley, from the West MIdlands Police regional organised crime unit, said: “These were cynical, calculating crimes. Smith and Daka positioned themselves as big-hearted charitable people who wanted to help very vulnerable people. 

“In reality they were traffickers and abusers.

“They knew migrants would be paying up to £10,000 to traffickers to gain illegal entry in to the UK, and Smith would then charge each asylum seeker upwards of £1,000 for their ‘charity’ services.

“The rescued man would have been expected to hide in a lorry trailer for the entire duration of the trip from Belgium. Once their trafficking racket was established, we believe they intended to smuggle up to 30 people a month into the UK."

Withholding documents

Henley continued: “Smith liked to describe herself as ‘La Nonna’ to ensure people knew she wasn’t a person to be messed with. If they couldn’t pay-up, she would withhold important personal and immigration documents.

“And while their victims were suffering, she and Daka were making lots of money which they spent on developing a restaurant and on houses in Albania and Turkey. 

“We have restrained these properties pending a Proceeds of Crime Investigation. It’s important we show that crime doesn’t pay. 

“I’d like to thank the East Flanders Human Trafficking Unit who helped us collect vital evidence. I have no doubt that together we have prevented a large number people being trafficked into the UK." 

Charity Commission provided ‘intelligence and advice’

A Charity Commission spokesperson told Civil Society News: “The Commission has supported the police throughout their investigation by providing intelligence and advice.

"Any abuse of charity for criminal purposes is appalling. The exploitation that was uncovered here runs counter to everything we associate with charity.

"We welcome the conviction, which means the individual is automatically disqualified from acting as a charity trustee or senior manager.” 

Editorial note: This story was updated to add information from the Charity Commission

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