LONDON: Illegal immigrants wanting to get into the UK and criminals seeking to escape are being allegedly assisted by Albanian people-smugglers.
The British newspaper, the Daily Mail, reported that people-smugglers were getting paid twice — for smuggling illegal immigrants into the UK and smuggling suspects out across the English Channel.
Albanian gangs are reported to have been promoting escape trips on lorries for “people who have problems and want to leave England as soon as possible” on TikTok.
As part of an undercover investigation, a reporter posed as someone wanting to assist a family member who needed to leave the UK after being involved in a murder. The reporter was told that smuggling the man out would be possible for £3,000.
According to the newspaper, another TikTok account advertised to smuggle wanted criminals out for £17,500, by posing as reserve lorry drivers after processing forged papers for them.
A smuggler was quoted as saying that this method was routinely used to smuggle illegal immigrants into the UK.
On Friday, Tory MPs condemned the people-smuggling gangs for making fortunes by “using the UK like a criminal playground.”
Alp Mehmet, of Migration Watch UK, said: “Our country, once revered for its law and order, is being turned into the Wild West by Albanian criminals who seem to have taken control and can do as they please. It is utterly shameful.”
UK police are currently pursuing more than 38 suspected Albanian criminals, including nine murderers, two purported rapists, an alleged £3 million fraudster, a cannabis producer and a drug dealer, among others.
It is believed that people-smugglers have helped such criminals flee the country. Another TikTok promo addressed “people with problems” wishing to exit England who could do so by “going to France or Belgium” on the back of a lorry for £2,500. A second people-smuggling gang’s TikTok page offered “inbound and outbound by lorry.” A third page run by another smugglers’ group asked for direct messages from “anyone who wants to return to the EU from England by lorry, people with problems who cannot get an airplane. 100 percent guarantee.”
The site had more than 40 posts, many offering illegal passage into the UK either by lorry or “super comfort” yacht, and urged Albanians in France or Belgium to get in touch.
One smuggler account, “Travel Agency London,” asked for £17,500 to up pick a “fugitive killer” from a safe house in Leeds and transport him in the cab of a Belgian lorry out of the UK using fake travel documents.
The smuggler was quoted as saying: “We bring people from Belgium to England in the cab of the lorry as a second driver all the time.”
Tory MP Gareth Johnson, a former lawyer, described the newspaper’s findings as “frightening.”
“What is so worrying is they believe they are a law unto themselves and are treating our country like a criminal playground,” Johnson said.
“This is the consequence of having such porous borders.
“If criminals are coming here illegally we can hardly be surprised that criminals are also escaping when they are wanted, but it is utterly cynical that it is the same gangs making money to take them both ways.”
Meanwhile, Tory MP Natalie Elphicke, whose constituency is in Dover where many migrants enter the UK, said: “This investigation underlines that the small boats’ crisis is about serious and organized crime as well as illegal immigration. The criminal gangs will only be stopped when they know they won’t succeed in using small boats.”
She said that was why France needed to work with the UK to stop small boats leaving the French coast.
The Daily Mail said that although TikTok banned people-smuggling accounts, after such pages were terminated they usually quickly reappeared in a similar form.
A TikTok spokesman said: “We have zero tolerance for content that facilitates human smuggling and trafficking. The videos and accounts in question have been banned, and we continue to work closely with UK law enforcement and industry partners to find and remove content of this nature.”
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