People-smugglers ‘use Facebook’ to con migrants in £6bn trade

PEOPLE-SMUGGLERS ARE exploiting Facebook to peddle their deadly £6bn trade, a senior National Crime Agency officer has said.

Social media giants should be using their collective “brain power” to combat the problem, according to NCA deputy director Tom Dowdall, inset.

Increasingly sophisticated criminal gangs set up Facebook pages to ply their business by appearing “reliable and safe”.

But migrants, who pay thousands of euros, are forced on to dangerous crossings, threatened at knifepoint and subjected to sexual abuse and rape, Mr Dowdall said.

He said: “Social media is really important to organised crime networks, offering their services to people across the Mediterranean, so offering their vessels to people.

“They are highlighting how reliable and safe they are when they are anything but reliable and safe. It’s really an important part of the marketplace that organised crime networks set up.

“Facebook is prevalent but there are other internet service providers, platforms and social media platforms that are used as well. “We think there is an awful lot more that the technology companies and internet providers like Facebook and others can and should be doing in order to prevent criminals and crime networks from being able to advertise and communicate their activities.

“We believe there is an awful lot more they can do given the tech power and brain power that they have to resolve and solve these problems.”

The criminal networks generate profits up of to £6bn a year and have remained “resilient” in spite of the closure of the Calais camps, Mr Dowdall said.

An NCA-led taskforce has been targeting the smugglers operating in the Mediterranean and the UK borders.

The networks work hard to exploit any weaknesses along the route, Mr Dowdall said.

A briefing at NCA headquarters in London gave recent examples of how law enforcement agencies have smashed operations across Europe.

In one case, people from Syria, Iraq and Pakistan were found in squalid conditions in caves in Crete, after paying €4,000 to travel to the UK and other European countries.