Britain's interior minister vowed Saturday to clamp down on people-smuggling gangs after 58 people were arrested in raids on massage parlours targeting suspected illegal immigration and prostitution.
"Organised criminals are relentless in their exploitation of vulnerable people to make money," Home Secretary David Blunkett said following the police raids in northern England on Friday night.
"We will remain resolute in our fight against organised immigration crime."
Britain has pledged a major crackdown on both people-smuggling rings and so-called "gangmasters", who exploit illegal immigrants as cheap labour, since 20 presumed Chinese immigrants died collecting shellfish in February.
The group, thought to be working illegally for minimal wages, were trapped by rising tides off the town of Morecambe in north-west England while gathering cockles.
In Friday's operation, 58 people - 47 women and 11 men - were arrested in raids centred on massage parlours in the cities of Sheffield and Leeds.
In Britain, massage parlours are sometimes a front for brothels, which are illegal.
Police said that the nationality of those arrested was not immediately known, but that many were thought to be illegal immigrants.
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