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“The majority of smugglers lose their money on gambling, drugs and discos.”

Those are the words of someone involved in cross-Channel people smuggling.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, they lifted the lid on how people make it to Britain on small boats.

In just a few days, the government is set to publish new laws aiming to stop small boats crossing the Channel, with illegal migration remaining one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s priorities.

In a wide-ranging discussion, the smuggler revealed how they avoid the police and what they make of the government’s Rwanda deportation plan.

They also disclose how most of those involved in taking people across the Channel end up in the UK themselves.

And they blame “mafia” groups for the deaths of more than 30 people who drowned while trying to cross the Channel in November 2021.

Here’s what else they told us about how these criminal gangs operate, in our full Q&A.

How would you describe your role?

It starts in the camps. The refugees are there – all nationalities from Kurds to Afghans, Albanians and Pakistanis – and so are the smugglers.

People get the smuggler’s name and make an agreement about where to meet. Passengers are sent on foot, by bus or car to the beach.

The smuggler waits for the equipment to arrive, it’s assembled, then people are put in boats and they set off.

Smugglers are just doing business, transferring people to the other side.

They work and make money. They are even helping people.

We see it as just another job, like working in a restaurant or a barbershop.

Read more:
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Record numbers crossed Channel in 2022

What does it cost to get to Britain and what’s the process?

The first thing is the money. If someone has money, it’s easier.

If they don’t have money, the journey is more difficult and they’ll have to wait around.

If there are too many migrants, the prices go up. So it goes from €500 to €2,500.

If there aren’t enough people then the prices drop.

Different nationalities also affect the prices. For example, Albanians pay more, Pakistanis pay more.

Cracking down on people smugglers is a top priority for Rishi Sunak's government
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Cracking down on people smugglers is a top priority for Rishi Sunak’s government

How difficult do the French police make it?

Smugglers play hide and seek. If the police are there, they hide and wait till they have gone and then we do our job.

The police watch us, and we also watch the police. When they have gone, we do the job.

But if the police are there they disrupt our work and puncture the dinghy.

It’s becoming more difficult to avoid the police because the locations have now been identified.

In the past, it was just the trucks. The police now know from which points smugglers send people.

People have died going to Britain on small boats – would you put your family on a boat?

Yes, it’s normal. People take four days [to travel] from Greece to Italy. Compared to that trip, this journey is nothing.

People put their own family members in these dinghies – their wives, sisters and brothers.

Sometimes, they cross themselves.

Smugglers Q&A

Is smuggling a lucrative business?

Some people lose money.

An eight-metre dinghy costs around €1,000-€12,000. If the police come and tear it apart, that’s €12,000 down the drain.

Sometimes it happens twice, or the engine doesn’t work, or the dinghy is confiscated on its way.

But some also make a profit.

The majority of smugglers lose their money on gambling, drugs and discos.

Tell us more about smugglers and the UK.

Three-quarters of the smugglers are in Britain. The money they make, they invest in business there.

They live there, life is easier there. Regardless of their nationalities, three-quarters of the smugglers live in the UK and invest their money in business.

They are happier there. They rent houses under someone else’s name and drive cars without a licence.

They walk around London. They walk around Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle.

They have made money, invested it there and have businesses.

They send people across the water and then they jump on the last boat and cross the water.

What about the UK government’s Rwanda plan – would that change anything?

I swear even if they send people to the Amazon, people will come to Britain – it’s their wish to go to Britain.

It will change a bit for some nationalities.

It will decrease but not to the extent that refugees won’t come to Britain.

People will still come.

Smugglers Q&A

Where do the boats come from?

In the past, people would go to Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium and would buy boats there. But that has decreased because it was discovered [by police].

So now people bring the boats from Turkey – they can buy them in bulk and it’s cheaper.

It costs around €3,500. So they buy five or six and send them to Germany by post, and then from Germany, cars transport them to France.

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A record number of 45,756 people attempted the dangerous journey from France to the UK last year, a rise of over 60%

How did the deaths of 31 migrants in the Channel in 2021 make you feel?

Some of these guys [other people smugglers] have no conscience.

Even when the weather is not good, they are addicts and just want the money and to play with people’s lives.

People are desperate in the camps in the rain and cold, and with the police’s dawn raids.

If you tell the migrants “tonight is good”, everyone swarms around you and they don’t care. They don’t know about the weather.

Some of the smugglers are mafia, not smugglers, and do it only for the money. They know the weather is not good, but they still play with people’s lives.

The night of the incident was one of those nights.

The ones who did it were mafia – they have no heart.

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Russell Brand charged with rape and sexual assault

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Russell Brand charged with rape and sexual assault

Russell Brand has been charged with rape and two counts of sexual assault between 1999 and 2005.

The Metropolitan Police say the 50-year-old comedian, actor and author has also been charged with one count of oral rape and one count of indecent assault.

The charges relate to four women.

He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday 2 May.

Police have said Brand is accused of raping a woman in the Bournemouth area in 1999 and indecently assaulting a woman in the Westminster area of London in 2001.

He is also accused of orally raping and sexually assaulting a woman in Westminster in 2004.

The fourth charge alleges that a woman was sexually assaulted in Westminster between 2004 and 2005.

Police began investigating Brand, from Oxfordshire, in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations.

Read more from Sky News:
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The comedian has previously denied the accusations, and said all his sexual relationships were “absolutely always consensual”.

Met Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said: “The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers.

“The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.”

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Last UK blast furnaces days from closure as Chinese owners cut off crucial supplies

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Last UK blast furnaces days from closure as Chinese owners cut off crucial supplies

​​​​​​​The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running. 

Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.

The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.

Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure

The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.

The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.

British Steel proceesing

The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.

More on China

The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.

These steel workers could soon be out of work
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These steel workers could soon be out of work

However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.

Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.

British Steel in action

However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.

They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.

British Steel

The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.

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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.

“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”

British Steel declined to comment.

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Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released

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Prince Andrew's Pitch@Palace branded 'crude attempt to enrich himself' as Chinese spy documents set to be released

Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.

Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.

In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.

The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
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The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew

Pic: Pitch@Palace
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Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace

Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).

Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.

So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?

In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.

More on Prince Andrew

The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.

Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.

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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?

Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.

But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.

Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.

Read more:
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He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…

“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.

Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.

He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.

He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.

“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”

We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.

With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.

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