The court in Bruges also ordered Vo Van Hong, 45, to pay a 920,000 euro (NZ$1.5 million) fine and gave prison terms of between 18 months and 10 years to 17 others for their roles in large-scale people smuggling from Vietnam to Britain.
The three-judge panel said in a ruling that ran to 234 pages that those convicted had cynically exploited the victims, who were each charged nearly 25,000 euros for the trip to Britain, and treated them as a dehumanised cargo.
