'Migrant taxi service' smuggler deported from UK

A Ukrainian national convicted of people-smuggling offences on a £15,000 ($20,000) yacht has been deported after serving part of a six-year prison sentence.

The Home Office said Vladyslav Cherniavskyi, who was jailed at Portsmouth Crown Court on 12 March, was removed from the UK in September.

In July 2025, he and another Ukrainian man, Oleksandr Yavtushenko, were convicted of plotting to smuggle migrants into the UK on the boat from northern France, which was found by a Border Force cutter off the Isle of Wight.

Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum Anna Turley said Cherniavskyi's deportation "sends a clear message [that] foreign criminals who break our laws will be removed".

Cherniavskyi pleaded guilty to several offences committed over a two-year period, including smuggling a woman with a child, as well as a young, unaccompanied Vietnamese girl.

He used the private yacht to repeatedly transport migrants across the English Channel in what was described by prosecutors as an "illegal migrant taxi service", delivering them to the UK for financial gain.

The Home Office said evidence provided by French law enforcement authorities had helped secure the convictions leading to his deportation.

It said his removal was "proof of the government's commitment to deport foreign criminals, disrupt organised immigration crime and protect the UK public".

"This vile criminal played a key role in a people-smuggling operation that sought to undermine the integrity of our border, profit from illegal migration, and endangered the lives of vulnerable people," Turley said.

"We will continue to work across government and with international partners to remove these bad actors."

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has pledged to double the Immigration Enforcement budget by 2028/29 and boost workforce numbers by 60%.