As many as 100 British people are believed to have been arrested in France over the course of the last year for their role in attempting to smuggle illegal migrants into the UK.
Migrants gathered in Calais are desperate to cross the Channel by any means, and smugglers are increasingly targeting private cars and vans in addition to lorries, according to Julie Colaert, deputy public prosecutor in Calais.
Most of the people convicted were drivers who hid migrants in their vehicles in exchange for money.
Smugglers could get as much as €4,000 a trip, Colaert said, but can expect between six months and two years in prison if convicted.
Of those who have appeared in local courts on people smuggling charges, 25% were from the UK followed by people from eastern Europe.
Colaert said: “In the past two years we have seen more and more English smugglers.” She estimated there were between five and ten UK smugglers prosecuted a month and as many as 100 Brits had been imprisoned in France for smuggling over the last year.
“Trafficking gangs are employing them to take people across in their cars. The migrants pay a lot of money because it’s sold as guaranteed passage to the UK.” Colaert added that lorries are monitored by the police, leading people to believe that cars and vans were less likely to be searched.
Europol, the EU law enforcement agency, confirmed that organised criminal gangs as well as individuals based in the UK were involved in people smuggling.
French people, including students and local traders who are struggling, have also been targeted.
Calais has seen its migrant population boom from about 1,000 in April to more than 3,000 in recent weeks.
After chaos ensued on Tuesday when hundreds of migrants tried to break into lorries during a French ferry workers’ strike, PM David Cameron has tried to ease tension with France by calling for an end to pointing the finger of blame and signaling that the UK is prepared to contribute more to border security if needed, including more personnel and sniffer-dogs.
The mayor of Calais told French radio that the UK has “not offered a penny” to help Calais authorities.
Mr Cameron also said Britain must tackle the people-smuggling gangs in north Africa and do more to make Britain a “less easy place for illegal migrants to come to and work in”.
Comments
Having a Brit passport can be bought off the internet for a few hundred euros / rupees. So are these truly British ?
But this is sickening. These so called Brits should be sterilised. As a first offence and to stop future generations. There is no point in endlessly lecturing the Portuguese on being so many decades behind us and why they have every right to feel inferior if these so called 'British' twats misbehave.
If these sh*ts are the descendants of those who fought at Agincourt and stuffed the French so many times then they need to be defenestrated. On conviction or - even more effective - on the balance of probabilities. (Not actually anything that Everest Double Glazing to get worked up about as it involves window handles) Look it up.