Gangs prey on desperate to pocket thousands
efforts to combat crossings of the Channel by some irregular migrants on small boats at the peril of their life.”
Mr Javid said: “UK & France will build on joint efforts to deter illegal migration – protecting our borders and human life.”
Sources said that during their call, the French Interior Minister told Mr Javid authorities had “successfully dismantled an entire organised crime group which had been trafficking individuals through France” on December 19. Ministers blame traffickers for fuelling crossings.
Officials said Mr Castaner committed to an “enhanced plan” to boost monitoring and patrols, with operations run from the UK-France co-ordination centre in Coquelles, near Calais. Mr Javid GREEDY smugglers are charging desperate migrants £5,000 each to make the dangerous 21-mile Channel crossing in flimsy vessels.
Recent arrivals to the Kent coast have largely been from Iran’s middle class, offering rich pickings for the self-styled “agents”.
Some smugglers are themselves former migrants to Britain. One targeting the refugee camps in France is said to be of Afghan origin.
Iranian Ahmad Lorpur, 36, who lives in a Sajid Javid cut holiday short Room at the lodge in South Africa where a visit costs £840 per person per night pledged to support French efforts. It came as he scrapped plans for a stay at Dulini Lodge in Kruger National Park.
The riverside lodge, at £840 per person per night, offers private plunge pools, safari drives and sundown cocktails in the 4.8 million-acre wilderness, home to lions, leopards, rhinos and elephants
Mr Javid, who had to end his trip after tent in Calais with his wife and kids, told the Sunday Mirror: “You have to pay mafia to get on a boat. They call themselves ‘agents’, like travel agents. One Iraqi Kurd in his 20s said he lives in England and I needed to pay £5,000 each for me and my wife. My children can go for £2,500.”
Another said his journey from Tehran to the UK would end up costing £15,000, paid to a Kurd-dominated group of people smugglers. Dinghy carried 6 people
four days without going on safari, is due to meet Mr Castaner for talks next month. Campaigners stepped up calls for asylum seekers to be offered safe passage.
Refugee Council’s Lisa Doyle said: “The people crossing the Channel on boats are desperate. It’s a sad fact that people are forced to rely on smugglers to find safety.”
Chris Hogben of National Crime Agency’s Project Invigor, which tackles organised immigration crime, said dozens of crossing have been prevented and “three suspected facilitators” had been charged.
But he warned more crossings were “likely” in the coming weeks.
And Lucy Moreton, of the Immigration Services Union, said: “We are being told that those touting for these crossings are absolutely open about it... in Calais.”
France’s Maritime Prefecture said they were dealing with a “network” of organised people smugglers.