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Kingpins in Channel smuggling operation ‘living and working freely’ in the UK

Kingpins in Channel smuggling operation ‘living and working freely’ in the UK

Jul 24, 2021 1 min, 27 secs

Three of the kingpins in operations to smuggle thousands of asylum seekers across the Channel in small boats are living and working freely in the UK and have evaded detection by the Home Office and law enforcement agencies, migrants interviewed by the Guardian have claimed.

Charities that work closely with refugees, but did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals against their volunteers said they recognised the claims made by the asylum seekers the Guardian spoke to, and said the three men were likely to be among many operating different smuggling operations from the UK.

The asylum seeker then makes an arrangement with a trusted relative or friend to hold the money until after the crossing and then waits for a phone call from a smuggler working in Calais to say: “We are ready, you can cross tonight.”.

The asylum seekers who spoke to the Guardian said they believed that home secretary Priti Patel’s plans to break the smugglers’ business model by making small boat channel crossings more difficult was doomed to failure because asylum seekers are prepared to resort to desperate measures.

It is longer and more dangerous but asylum seekers will use this route if they don’t have another choice,” one asylum seeker said.

A second asylum seeker said that the smugglers in the UK refer to the smugglers in Calais as “the workers”.

The asylum seeker said that after being told they would be on a boat with 12 people there were 21 on it.

A third asylum seeker said: “Priti Patel doesn’t understand how the smugglers at the top work.

A Home Office spokesperson said the government would not hesitate to prosecute people smugglers, and had secured more than 65 small boat-related prosecutions since the start of 2020

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