Albanian gangs cashing in on desperate migrants
ALBANIAN crime gangs are acting as “brokers” for migrants trying to cross the English Channel, intelligence has revealed.
The National Crime Agency said Albanian gangsters are helping people arriving in northern France to board boats traditionally operated by Kurdish crime groups.
Sources say they are increasing the price to rake in a cut of the crossings themselves.
Criminals
The Daily Express understands Kurdish gangs have tried to combat it by warning that some Albanian criminals are deliberately inflating the cost.
We have seen examples of migrants warning against the “brokers” too.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman had said that the Government “will leave no stone unturned to find new ways to curb the crisis and ensure those responsible feel the full force of the law.”
Albanians make up around 60 per cent of all asylum seekers arriving on small boats across the Channel.
Kurdish gangs still control the majority of the routes but intelligence reveals that Albanian criminals are muscling in by acting as a broker.
An Albanian woman suspected of helping migrants cross is in custody after a raid in Banbury, Oxfordshire, yesterday. National Crime Agency director general Graeme Biggar attended the operation and said: “This threat is indicative of the challenge posed by serious and organised crime more widely.
“It exploits the vulnerable, it works across continents and can be arranged and controlled using the online technology available to everyone.”
It comes as lifeboat volunteers told how desperate mothers are throwing their babies to rescue teams. The RNLI’s head of lifeboats, Simon Ling, said dinghies – packed with up to 40 to 50 people – are often “very chaotic, with screaming and panic
A lifeboat volunteer, who did not wish to be named, said he and crew members fear finding “tens of bodies” floating in the sea and had received training in delivering a baby at sea.
The RNLI also released a harrowing video showing a crew hauling migrants, including a 14-year-old girl, aboard their boat.
Battle
They then had to battle to keep some of them conscious. On helmetcam footage one crew member can be heard yelling: “Guys this is serious, one person not breathing.”
Among the five people pulled to safety are believed to be a family of four from Afghanistan.
Government figures showed 502 migrants arrived in the UK on 12 boats after crossing the Channel on Tuesday, taking the provisional total for the year so far to 37,570.