The Scottish Mail on Sunday

Albanian migrants pay £17k to enter UK on luxury yachts

- By Mark Hookham

RUTHLESS people-smugglers are sneaking Albanian migrants into the UK on luxury yachts as part of a ‘premium’ traffickin­g service, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Posing as a migrant, an undercover MoS journalist last week contacted Albanian crime bosses who claim to be regularly using yachts to smuggle people into the UK.

One trafficker offered a place on a yacht leaving Belgium for £17,000, while another offered one from near Calais for £16,000.

The MoS revealed last weekend that four in ten migrants crossing the Channel in small boats this summer are from Albania – where there has not been a war for 25 years.

The investigat­ion has exposed how peoplesmug­glers are using TikTok to target Albanian migrants.

One of the trafficker­s posted pictures of luxury vessels. The advertisem­ent, written in Albanian, offered a ‘journey to England every two days’.

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