MIGRANTS ARE PAYING £8,685 TO BE SMUGGLED INTO BRITAIN
BRITAIN remains the prized destination for illegal migrants – with trafficking gangs charging twice as much to get here than the rest of Europe, it emerged last night.
The “tariffs” were revealed after a major smuggling ring operating in Greece was smashed by law enforcers.
Migrants were forced to pay the gang between £3,475 and £5,210 for destinations on Europe’s mainland.
But to reach the promised land of Britain, people had to pay a premium of between £6,948 and £8,685.
The figures were obtained by the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol, which busted the ring with help from the UK’s National Crime Agency.
Vulnerable
Charlie Elphicke, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Dover, said: “Ruthless people traffickers are fleecing vulnerable people for thousands of pounds. They are making a fortune by helping migrants break into Britain.
“This is why we must crack down on these evil modern slavers. They should face longer jail terms and have their assets seized upon conviction.”
Ukip home affairs spokeswoman Jane Collins said: “This shows why we need to be completely independent of the EU and upscale our border force, police numbers and security services.”
The Europol operation found illegal immigrants were either provided with false documents or given genuine passports belonging to other people.
The syndicate moved them from Greece either by land via the “Balkans route” or by air. The Balkans route involved migrants crossing the border from Greece into Macedonia.
From there, other members of the group picked the illegal immigrants up and organised further transport to countries including Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.
The network was involved in 26 smuggling cases – 11 by air transport, 14 by land and one by sea.
Investigators discovered that for each leg of the journey the syndicate received up to £1,739.
In smashing the Athens-based trafficking cartel, Europol arrested four people, stopped four migrants being smuggled and uncovered a wealth of data about the criminal gang behind the operation.
They seized 17 passports, eight identity cards, two Afghan travel documents, two asylum request documents, three boarding passes, German visas, £3,000 in cash, 24 mobile phones and three laptops.
Details of the trafficking charges were revealed as thousands of migrants continue making their way to northern France, with the ultimate aim of getting across the Channel illegally.
The French authorities bowed to pressure from the UK last year and bulldozed the notorious “Jungle” squatter camp in Calais.
Chaos
It had been a temporary home to thousands of refugees waiting for their chance to stowaway to Britain.
The alarming scale of cross-border smuggling emerged after the Daily Express recently revealed that at least 700 migrants have returned to the Calais area.
Most have returned to the port town after initially being sent to processing centres across France.
The deepening crisis has raised the spectre of another “summer of chaos” in northern France with riot police already involved in violent clashes at the besieged border post.