Evil traders keep their targets at arm’s length
CROOKS operating on behalf of gangsters weave their way into refugee camps to tempt desperate asylum-seekers to fork out a fortune for a lethal crossing.
These smugglers can be found on a social media platform, openly advertising routes and inviting people to message them privately for more details. One even claimed he would make customers a British passport.
Often the passengers do not know where their money is going and may not ever actually see the people sending them off on the perilous journey, one told us.
When boats leave, generally in the dead of night, any contact with smugglers is brief. Money will either quickly change hands or be placed where a raft has been left for them.
“It is dark, so if somebody is there you never actually see them,” our source said.
If a faulty boat filled with people is returned after an unsuccessful voyage, money is sometimes returned to the refugees.
Some gangs are charging more than £3300 for a place on an unsafe boat, it was reported.
It means that the gang behind Wednesday’s tragic crossing could have been in line to get more than £112,000.
Security sources in Britain have reportedly revealed refugees are increasingly being forced on to boats by smugglers under the threat of violence.
The gangs are said to regularly fail to provide travellers with life jackets, instead letting them use bicycle tubes and plastic swimming pool rings.
When the small-boat phenomenon began, gangs mainly undertook launches in calm weather with flat seas but increased surveillance is said to have led many to risk launches in much worse conditions.