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A PEOPLE smuggler has boasted to The Sun of getting 300 migrants across the Channel.

The Afghan fixer named Anam, 28, told our team that he helps set up speedboat crossings to the UK for £6,000 per person.

 Afghan fixer Anam bragged about smuggling 300 migrants across the Channel
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Afghan fixer Anam bragged about smuggling 300 migrants across the Channel

He said in Calais, France: “If police catch you, they never send you back. It’s secure to go, no danger.”

The National Crime Agency is investigating our findings.

Smugglers in Britain are sneaking migrants across the Channel with payments sent to a backstreet curry house.

The scam is being orchestrated by the Afghan “Mr Fix It” already booted out of the UK twice.

 Anam charges sneaking migrants £6,000 for a speed-boat crossing and £2,500 in a three-three dinghy
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Anam charges sneaking migrants £6,000 for a speed-boat crossing and £2,500 in a three-three dinghyCredit: Paul Edwards - The Sun

Anam charges would-be migrants £6,000 for a speedboat crossing and £2,500 to go in a three-metre dinghy.

The Calais-based fixer, who uses a UK mobile phone to run the illegal operation, claims to have helped 300 migrants get into Britain.

He boasted to undercover reporters how easy it was to get from Calais to Folkestone, Kent — and they would stay in the UK even if caught.

He scoffed: “Really, you just cross the water. Then if police catch you, no problem, they never send you back.”

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He told us that cash payments were made to a fixer based at a curry restaurant in Southall, West London.

The Sun’s investigation began after an Iranian dad alerted us to a smuggling “mafia” of Afghans and armed Kurds in a migrant camp at Calais.

We enquired there about making the Channel crossing and were directed to two Afghans, Mazhari and Watan. They vowed: “Our agent will get your man to England.”

They sent us to tents at the rear where Anam holds court. In an exchange captured on a covert camera, he said: “We will find a boat for him.”

 After inquiring  about making the Channel crossing, Afghans Mazhari and Watan vowed to 'get your man to England' before sending us to meet Anam
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After inquiring  about making the Channel crossing, Afghans Mazhari and Watan vowed to 'get your man to England' before sending us to meet Anam
 Tents at a camp near Calais where people smuggler Anam operates
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Tents at a camp near Calais where people smuggler Anam operatesCredit: Paul Edwards - The Sun

Anam, 28, said he works with UK smugglers “who never give you their real names”.

He said for £6,000 they can arrange for a speedboat to be sent to a pick-up point 60 miles from Calais.

No cash changes hands in France. Instead, Anam said migrants use UK-based friends or family to hand payment to the London restaurant owner.

He said in broken English: “He just bring the boat and I give the people.”

 Afghan people smuggler Anam leads us to the launch point
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Afghan people smuggler Anam leads us to the launch point
 The beach where speed boats and dinghies set off for the UK
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The beach where speed boats and dinghies set off for the UKCredit: Paul Edwards - The Sun

He claimed to take “ten to 20” at a time — then wait at night for the speedboat.

Mimicking a torch, he said: “They just give me a light. When I see the boat I put the people in.”

The cheaper end of his operation is the perilous £2,500-a-person rubber dinghy.

Anam insists the spate of recent crossings via this method has slowed due to recent poor weather.

 The Sun's Oliver Harvey talks to migrants near the port of Calais
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The Sun's Oliver Harvey talks to migrants near the port of CalaisCredit: Paul Edwards - The Sun

The Afghan, who left his home in Jalalabad aged 14 for the UK, promises an experienced pilot for the voyage.

He said a three-metre dinghy was ideal and it should carry only four people.

He said: “We can buy the lifejacket for him, just spend little money and go. I can help you like this.

“We buy the petrol for him, 30 litres is more than enough.”

 Three Iranian migrants pose the camera at the Jungle in Calais
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Three Iranian migrants pose the camera at the Jungle in CalaisCredit: Paul Edwards - The Sun

Anam, who has lived in Cheltenham, Birmingham and East London, said: “I will take your person, I just push him in the water.

“I say to him, ‘Go straight’. They will not go into Dover, they will come to Folkestone. It is better. The police will never catch him.”

He claims to have recently helped an Iranian dad and his children get to the UK. He said: “They buy the boat in Germany and they come and bring it here.”

He also told how an Englishwoman recently charged two migrants £14,000 each to travel in a wooden box in her Range Rover’s converted back seat.

 Iranian Ahmad Lorpur, 36 and daughter Mariam, 7, who are desperate to reach the UK
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Iranian Ahmad Lorpur, 36 and daughter Mariam, 7, who are desperate to reach the UKCredit: Paul Edwards - The Sun

Anam took our team five miles to a secluded beach at Les Hemmes de Marck — which he said was the launch spot for UK-bound dinghies.

Insisting migrants would be safe, he said: “If we bring the boat here and we blow it up near the water, they will never come back.”

He scoffed at Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to send the Royal Navy’s HMS Mersey on patrol in the Channel after a string of crossings.

He said: “Are the Navy going to patrol all English waters? No.” He even insisted that the journey — through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes — was not dangerous.

HUNDREDS IN BID TO CROSS

MORE than 500 people tried to reach Britain in small boats last year.

Of those 539, 80 per cent attempted to get here in the past three months.

But nearly half (42 per cent) were intercepted by the French authorities.

Another 25 boats have tried to cross the Channel since January 1. Eight migrants were seized on Monday after landing in Dungeness, Kent.

In September seven illegal migrant smugglers based in the UK were jailed for between six and nine years.

The gang charged Albanians £5,500 to be ferried from Calais to a beach at Dymchurch, Kent, in dangerously overcrowded dinghies.

He said: “It’s secure to go, no danger. It’s safe. Lifejacket makes you safe, completely.”

If the dinghy plan failed he could even guarantee arrival by lorry — claiming he smuggled nine people that way in the fortnight before Christmas.

Anam said he pays East European truck drivers £3,000 a migrant. He smirked: “In Romania and Poland people can work for £800 two months. For £3,000 for each person they all jumping, dancing for it.”

After we made a deal for a speedboat crossing, Anam and an associate gave us the name of the fixer who would accept the £6,000 fee in cash.

We called at the Southall restaurant but were told the owner was in Pakistan.

The manager denied knowing Anam or his associate when we showed their pictures. He said: “This is fake. We have nothing to do with smuggling. No one has ever come in here offering to leave money. It’s not true.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We work closely with all partners in the UK and overseas to strike people smuggling at source – identifying and dismantling the organised crime groups that facilitate illegal immigration. Since April 2018, Immigration Enforcement officers have disrupted 46 organised crime groups involved in people smuggling.”

The National Crime Agency said  it was investigating. A spokesman said: “We are grateful to the Sun for the information provided. Tackling the criminals behind these extremely dangerous attempts to funnel illegal immigrants across the Channel via small boats is a priority for the NCA.”

Dover MP Charlie Elphicke said: “The devastating findings of The Sun’s investigation underline the need for greater action by UK and French authorities to catch these crooks and bring them to justice.”

Home Secretary Sajid Javid redeploys two Border Force cutters as migrant channel crossings increase



 

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