EXCLUSIVE: The news a small boats’ trafficker is running is living in Leciestershire comes as no surprise to investigation editor Zak Garner-Purkis
An infamous people smuggler is claiming asylum in Britain (Image: Getty)
Finding a people trafficker willing to illegally smuggle a person to Britain is far too easy, as our recent investigation exposing the migrant camps of Northern France showed.
It took our undercover reporter just a few hours to agree on a deal to come to Britain with criminals who did little to hide their activities.
The group was so brazen that they casually walked about the camp, pottering around makeshift market stands where associates sold illegal drugs and life jackets for wannabe small boat passengers.
It’s also well-established that the real power of these trafficking networks lies within the UK. I remember from a previous undercover investigation into an Albanian smuggling gang that the phone numbers for more senior members of the group had a UK dial code and payment drops were all made in the UK.
So the news today, broken by the BBC, that a people smuggler – previously described as “the godfather” of the French migrant camps – is living in Leicestershire and was understood to be seeking asylum while working illegally, comes as absolutely no surprise.
The broadcaster revealed that the man in question, Twana Jamal, had been handed a five-year jail sentence in France in 2016 and had been labelled “one of the most successful people smugglers ever caught.”
So how would he make it to Britain?
Well, having seen the chaos of the French border up close on six different occasions, I can safely say the Iraqi Kurd wouldn’t have much trouble.
All he’d have to do is walk into one of the migrant camps, which are controlled by Kurdish gangs, and join a group heading to the UK.
The French police make a point of not checking the IDs of migrants attempting to come to Britain, as I’ve seen firsthand when tracking a group into the French countryside. Officers made a point of checking my credentials, but not those of the people waiting for a small-boat crossing. That wasn’t a one-off; it happens constantly.
Given the laissez-faire attitude, even a convicted people smuggler could make it onto a small boat; he simply wouldn’t be checked.
Then there is the confidence that convicted criminals have about gaming the UK asylum system.
The undercover reporter we sent into the Calais camp found an Iranian Kurdish man who openly bragged about being a criminal and was planning to come to Britain to join a gang.
He’d struck a deal to come to Britain with his uncle, who was already there; he was confident he’d be granted asylum.
So is it that much of a shock that a man who’d been raking in up to £100,000 a week for smuggling illegal immigrants across the Channel would also be gaming the system? No, it’s not a surprise at all.