Traff ickers set migrants adrift in middle of Channel... to be picked up by ‘soft’ Brits
MIGRANTS are being taken halfway across the Channel in dinghies by ruthless traffickers – and then ordered to paddle the rest of the way to be picked up by ‘soft’ British officials.
Once near the English coast the desperate families are told to dial 999 and wait for Border Force staff to rescue them.
However, in some cases they are simply intercepted by the French and returned to Calais.
Many of those on the boats are professionals who claim t hey are fl eeing religious persecution in Iran, and unlike the Africans and Afghans who dominate the port town’s refugee camps, they have money to spend.
This new group of middle- class migrants first began arriving in Calais six months ago and now numbers around 200. Many have told The Mail on Sunday they will keep repeating the perilous journey until they reach England.
Explaining how the operation works, one Iranian said that, typically, some 15 migrants are packed on to each small boat. He said the operation is masterminded by Kurds in the UK who instruct agents in the camps to act on their behalf. The migrants are stripped of mobiles to stop them taking pictures and driven t o nearby beaches. As they set off, the group are given a single phone with a British SIM card and told to use it only when they believe they are close to Dover. Initially, a trafficker pilots the dinghy. But at the halfway point he removes the engine and calls a friend who picks him up in a speed boat. As he departs he simply tells the migrants to paddle until they see the shore.
Zakaria Mohamed, 37, said three weeks ago he and 11 others made it within 200 yards of Dover but were captured and brought back to France. Mohamed said he paid nearly £ 10,000 to an Iraqi Kurdish group which ‘guaranteed’ to take him to the UK. As he abandoned them, the trafficker pointed towards Dover with his pistol.
With their boat filling with water, Mohamed said they paddled about for seven hours, until they thought they were near the
shore. He called 999 thinking British police would rescue them but a boat carrying armed French police arrived instead.
One 41-year-old Iranian migrant at the Calais camp called Ali said: ‘Here everyone thinks the British are softer, and as soon as they are picked up in the sea by the police, they will be looked after. That’s what everyone thinks.’
Iranian Ahmad Hajipoor, 34, his wife Shukufa, 30, and their two children made a similar journey with 16 others after paying a Kurdish gang £12,000.
But after the smuggler left them their boat’s engine stopped work- ing and they were stranded. Eventually they were rescued by the French coastguard and returned to Calais. Hajipoor said: ‘I feel worse than an animal. This is not the way humans live. My children cry when the French police come to our camps. They take our belongings and destroy them.’