The Guardian
Traffickers are increasingly using less busy ports to get people ashore and have a range of tariffs depending on the route and method of transportation
Migrants attempting to reach the UK are paying smuggling gangs as much as £13,500 to arrange their journey, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has revealed.
Some of those intent on coming to Britain are quoted five-figure sums to make the trip by air, while others are believed to have spent as much as £12,000 to travel from France in inflatable boats.
It also emerged that criminal networks are suspected to have started targeting quieter ports on the east and south coasts in addition to the key hotspot, Kent.
The NCA – the UK’s equivalent to the FBI – is running the largest dedicated operation against organised immigration crime in Europe.
Officers said the cost varies hugely depending on the service being sought from the gang.
Factors that affect the price include whether migrants want a staged or “end-to-end” trip, how much they can afford and the level of risk perceived by smugglers.
Tom Dowdall, deputy director of the NCA’s border policing command, set out examples of the sums involved.
Someone wishing to travel from Iraq to the UK could pay just under £4,000 to go overland through Turkey and Europe, while the price jumps to more than £13,500 for a journey by air.
Referring to the more expensive example, Mr Dowdall said: “That’s someone who has been able to access a good quality travel document in the first instance to be able to cross borders and to be able to fool airlines as well.”
Asked how frequent such activity is, he said: “There is a regularity to that.”
The cost and sophistication of efforts to smuggle migrants into Britain from France also varies considerably.
Prices can range from as little as just over £100 for a single, basic attempt to more than £6,000 for a journey in a “high-quality concealment”.
Intelligence suggests that some migrants have paid up to £12,000 for transport from Dunkirk to the UK in rigid hulled inflatable boats, the NCA said.
The criminal networks are seen as adaptable, quickly changing their methods in response to law enforcement action or increased security.
Investigators suspect that, as well as the main Channel crossing between Calais and Kent, criminals may be using less busy ports within the UK.
“We’ve seen on the east coast evidence from Tilbury and Purfleet, up as far as Hull and Immingham. And on the south coast from Newhaven to Portsmouth,” Mr Dowdall said.
The NCA provided examples of recently detected “concealments”.
One migrant found in a tanker at Dartford Crossing had travelled from Iran to Calais via Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and, once in France, Paris and Lille.
He had paid around $4,000 (£2,800) to various “agents”, with the journey to the UK costing an additional 1,000 euros (£800).
In another episode, six men found on a freight train near Folkestone reported that they had paid 500 euros to get on at Calais, where they were sealed in containers.
The NCA’s 90-officer taskforce – codenamed Project Invigor – has up to 60 open lines of inquiry into organised crime gangs at any one time.
The groups involved tend to be formed along national or community lines, including those from the Middle East, China and various eastern European countries, the agency said, while British-based organisations often include naturalised UK citizens.
Smugglers find their “customers” through word of mouth recommendations, at transit hubs and through advertising on social media.
