People smugglers jailed after yacht seized in Solent

Two Ukrainian men who repeatedly smuggled migrants into the UK on a $20,000 yacht have been jailed. Vladyslav Cherniavskyi, 38, and Oleksandr Yavtushenko, 43, earlier pleaded guilty to three charges of assisting unlawful immigration, but Portsmouth Crown Court heard they had made at least eight trips across the English Channel. In sentencing Cherniavskyi and Yavtushenko to six and five years respectively, the judge said they were involved in "an insidious black market, draining families of money and perpetuating the misery of illegal immigration". The men were caught when Border Force intercepted the yacht, Uforia, near the Isle of Wight on 20 July 2025 as part of a joint operation. The National Crime Agency (NCA) said it asked the Border Force to intercept the vessel, after a tip-off from authorities in France. A team from the cutter HMC Seeker found four Albanian men and a young lone Vietnamese girl onboard, before escorting the yacht to Haslar Marina in Gosport. One of the Albanian men, Pellumb Selimi, 29, was arrested for failing to appear in court in connection with drugs offences and has since been deported. The three others are applying for asylum in the UK and the Vietnames