Albanian people smugglers offering ‘3-for-2’ deals for families trying to cross Channel

Gangs are selling small boat packages allowing children to make the perilous journey for free

Channel Migrants escorted ashore at Dover. It has emerged that Albanian people smugglers are offering '3-for-2' deals on crossings
Channel Migrants escorted ashore at Dover. It has emerged that Albanian people smugglers are offering 'group discounts' on crossings Credit: STUART BROCK/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Albanian people smugglers are offering “three-for-two” deals to cross the Channel so children can make the perilous journey for free.

The gangs are offering small boat packages where families are charged the standard fee of around £5,000 per adult but the child is allowed to make the journey for free.

Other people smugglers are giving discounts of up to £2,000 for a child on a packed small boat in what refugee charities described as “extremely worrying” exploitation and Home Office officials branded “shocking.”

It comes amid an increase in the number of women and children making the crossing this summer, which charities believe could be linked to migrants’ belief that families are less likely than single men to be deported to Rwanda to claim asylum.

Figures show there has been an 80 per cent increase in the number of children crossing the Channel, with more than 1,000 reaching the UK in the first six months of 2022, a figure that was not reached until September last year.

‘Extremely worrying’

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “It is extremely worrying that people smugglers are preying on children who are so vulnerable and face exploitation and abuse.

“We know directly from extensive work with Albanian refugees that many young people have been trafficked and are victims of criminal and sexual exploitation.”

In one advert posted on TikTok, a people smuggler offered “trips to England every day. Journey with 15 to 20 people on the boat. We are the best.”

TikTok post advertising: 'Trip to England every day. Journey 15 to 20 people on boat.'
TikTok post advertising: 'Trip to England every day. Journey 15 to 20 people on boat.'

Contacted by an undercover reporter and asked the price for two adults and a child, they were told: “£10,000 for two people. Child for free. The journey is safe, no problem for the child.”

Another promoted trips with a “100 per cent guarantee, every day, £4.5K.” Asked the price for a couple with a two-year-old child, the Albanian gang member replied: “11.000 euros (£9,500) for three of you. 4.5 euros for one adult and 2K for the child.

“It will not be any danger for the child. Just take a small bag and put him in. We have taken children in the past week. Age three to four years old. Get to Dunkirk. Call me on Whatsapp ‪+44 XXXX XXXXXX‬.”

When asked, a third gang, which was offering a price of £3,500, responded: “If you will pay the money in Albania 4.000 euro for an adult and 3.000 euro for a child. If the money is paid in England then the price will be £4,000 for one adult and £3,500 for a child.”

Asked about the risks for a child crossing the straits, the smuggler said: “No danger at all. No worries about this part.”

Reports of cut-price offers for disabled migrants

Home Office sources have described the discounts on children as “shocking” and nothing to do with “humanitarian” concerns but purely for profit. Sources have also reported similar cut-price offers for disabled migrants.

They say the boats are becoming less safe and the journeys more dangerous as the people smugglers cram more migrants onto them. The average number on boats has risen from 28 last year to 44, displaying what official sources say is a “significant rise in the [smugglers’] risk appetite.”

They say it is “remarkable” there has not been a repeat of the tragedy last November, which saw 27 men, women and children drown when their dinghy capsized.

Another smuggler promoted trips with a '100 per cent guarantee, every day, £4.5K.'
Another smuggler promoted trips with a '100 per cent guarantee, every day, £4.5K.'

Albanians now account for between 50 and 60 per cent of arrivals, which this weekend passed 25,000 for the year, double the rate in 2021.

Le Figaro, the leading French newspaper, has reported warnings that smugglers are using child migrants as “human shields” when approached by gendarmes. However, guidance to the police says they should ignore such threats and intervene if migrants’ lives are at risk.

The document from the Prefet du Nord - the highest local state official - said: “The trend towards an increase in the volume of groups of migrants is accompanied by a more violent change in their behaviour (hurling projectiles, migrants carrying knives)”.

"As soon as the circumstances suggest seagoing migrants' lives are in imminent danger, you must employ all means at your disposal to prevent the departure of those exposed, even in the event in which migrants use children as human shields.”

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