Illegal Boat Migrant Reveals What He Plans to Do When He Finally Reaches the UK And It Has Left People Wondering
When it comes to the small boat migrant crisis, I am not easily shocked anymore. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time reporting on what is happening on the French coast. I have seen French police officers, paid for with British taxpayers’ money, failing to stop crossings. I have visited migrant camps and even had a knife pulled on me while investigating. Because of this, I thought I had seen it all.
But what we found during our latest undercover investigation near Dunkirk left me stunned.
One reason many people are angry about the small boat crossings is because they happen so openly. Migrants are packed onto small, overcrowded boats that can be dangerous. The crossings continue despite laws designed to stop illegal entry into the UK. Yet the people organising these journeys often seem to operate without trying very hard to hide.
This is especially frustrating because Britain has spent billions of pounds helping France tackle the problem. The money has been used to pay for extra police officers, drones, vehicles and other equipment. Despite this, the boats continue to arrive in Britain.
When Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister, he promised to deal with the gangs behind the crossings. He said he would “smash the gangs” and stop the criminal networks making money from people smuggling.
However, what we found on the ground told a very different story.
Our undercover reporter visited the Loon-Plage migrant camp near Dunkirk. Within just a few hours, he was able to find people involved in arranging crossings to Britain. Hidden cameras captured suspected traffickers offering places on boats for around £1,500 per person.
What was most surprising was how easy they were to find. Many of them gathered in a market area run by Kurdish men. The market was busy with migrants buying food, drinks and charging their phones. Life jackets were also being sold at high prices, and drugs were reportedly available.
One migrant openly told our reporter that he wanted to come to Britain after being removed from another European country. He claimed he planned to join a gang and take part in criminal activity once he arrived in the UK.
Even after years of reporting on this issue, I was shocked by how quickly this information was uncovered. It did not take days or weeks. It took only a few hours.
The next day, I went to the camp myself with our producer. We wanted to see if we could find the same people and challenge them about what they were doing.
What surprised me most was that very few people seemed worried. Some tried to hide their faces, but nobody appeared to be in a hurry to leave. The suspected smugglers did not seem concerned about being confronted. A few hid behind tents, and some people threw stones at us, but overall they acted as if they had little to fear.
In the days after our investigation, several more boats crossed the English Channel carrying large numbers of migrants. If each migrant paid between £1,500 and £2,000 for the journey, the gangs behind the crossings could have made millions of pounds in a very short time.
For many people, this is the most worrying part. Despite years of promises, huge amounts of money being spent, and repeated pledges to stop the gangs, the people organising these crossings still appear to be operating openly and making large profits.
