A people smuggler who sends migrants across the Channel reveals how the illicit small boats trade really works
“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.
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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
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.
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Cross-Channel smuggler speaks to Sky News
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.
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.
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.
World
Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney named prime minister of Canada – succeeding Justin Trudeau
Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has been named Canadian prime minister after winning the Liberal Party leadership race in a landslide victory.
Mr Carney, who also used to be the head of Canada’s central bank, emerged as the frontrunner in the contest as the country deals with the impact of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
He ended up winning 85.9% of the vote.
During his victory speech, he told the crowd: “Donald Trump, as we know, has put unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell and how we make a living.
“He’s attacking Canadian families, workers and businesses and we cannot let him succeed and we won’t.”
Mr Carney said Canada would keep retaliatory tariffs in place until “the Americans show us respect”.
Mr Trump’s tariffs against Canada and his talk of making the country America’s 51st state have infuriated Canadians.
The American national anthem has been repeatedly booed at NHL and NBA games.
“Think about it. If they succeeded, they would destroy our way of life… America is a melting pot. Canada is a mosaic,” Mr Carney added.
“America is not Canada. Canada will never ever be part of America in any way, shape or form.”
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‘You can’t take our country or our game’
The 59-year-old will replace Justin Trudeau, who has served as prime minister since 2015.
Mr Trudeau announced he was stepping down in January after facing calls to quit from a chorus of his own MPs.
The 53-year-old’s popularity had declined as food and house prices rose.
Mr Carney will now have to decide when to call a general election in Canada – which must take place on or before 20 October.
In 2013, he became the first non-UK citizen to run the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694.
His appointment was popular in Britain after Canada recovered from the 2008 financial crisis faster than many other countries.
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During leadership debates, Mr Carney argued he was the only person prepared to handle Trump.
“I know how to manage crises,” he said.
“In a situation like this, you need experience in terms of crisis management, you need negotiating skills.”
The surge in Canadian nationalism has bolstered the Liberal Party’s chances in a parliamentary election.
US President Donald Trump has suggested Ukraine “may not survive” the war against Russia even if American support continued.
In an interview with Fox News channel’s ‘Sunday Morning Futures’, Mr Trump was asked about his controversial decision to pause support for Kyiv as it fends off Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Mr Trump, who had a disastrous meeting with Mr Zelenskyy at the White House last week, was asked about a warning from Polish President Andrzej Duda “that without American support, Ukraine will not survive”.
Asked if he was “comfortable” with that outcome, the US president said: “Well, it may not survive anyway.
“But we have some weaknesses with Russia. You know, it takes two,” Mr Trump added.
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It comes as Mr Zelenskyy will visit Saudi Arabia for a Monday meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, while Ukrainian diplomatic and military representatives will meet with a US delegation on Tuesday.
Mr Trump’s latest remarks come amid global concern over the souring relationship between Ukraine and the US, which alongside the EU has been Kyiv’s main backer in its defence against Russia’s three-year land, air and sea invasion.
The US paused military aid and the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine this month after a meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy on 28 February descended into acrimony in front of the world’s media.
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Mr Trump ordered the pause as he attempts to put pressure on Mr Zelenskyy to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Russia.
Mr Trump has privately made it clear to aides that a signed minerals deal between Washington and Kyiv will not be enough to restart aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported earlier on Sunday.
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The 78-year-old president is said to want the deal signed, but also wants to see a change in Mr Zelenskyy’s attitude towards peace talks.
Officials have told NBC News that Mr Trump also wants Mr Zelenskyy to make some movement towards holding elections in Ukraine and possibly stepping down as his country’s leader.
Mr Zelenskyy said in a recent interview he would be ready to step down as Ukraine’s president if it meant his country would become a NATO member and find peace.
That came after he was branded a “dictator” by Mr Trump as Ukraine had not held fresh elections – despite laws prohibiting it during wartime.
World
Russian forces creep through disused gas pipeline in attempt to launch surprise attack on Ukrainian soldiers
Russian special forces crept through a disused gas pipeline for several miles to launch a surprise attack on Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region, Ukraine’s military and pro-Moscow war bloggers have said.
Footage circulating on the Telegram app claims to show the elite soldiers crouching as they make their way through the darkness of the pipe to the town of Sudzha.
Some can be heard cursing in Russian and complaining about the commanders who sent them on the mission.
One of the soldiers is heard saying: “F*****g hell, where the f*** are we, boys?”
Another says: “Where does the pipe go? To Sudzha, for f**** sake, that’s f***ing crazy.”
Later in the clip a soldier is heard saying: “We’ll get there of course, but indignantly, because we’re f*****g sick of the f*****g command.”
He later adds: “They took our f*****g assault rifles too.”
Two of the soldiers are seen smoking cigarettes while a separate image shared on Telegram shows an operative wearing a gas mask.
The footage shows soldiers creeping through the pipeline
Soldiers are seen smoking cigarettes
The special forces soldiers walked around nine miles (15km) through the pipeline which Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe, according to Telegram posts by Ukrainian-born pro-Kremlin blogger Yuri Podolyaka.
In the footage, the soldiers suggest the mission requires them to walk seven miles through the pipe.
Mr Podolyaka says some of them spent several days in the pipeline before striking Ukrainian units from the rear near Sudzha.
The operation formed part of efforts by Russia to recapture areas of Kursk which were seized by thousands of Ukrainian soldiers in a shock offensive in August last year.
Another pro-Russian war blogger, who uses the alias Two Majors, said a major battle is under way in Sudzha after Moscow’s special forces crept through the pipe.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s general staff confirmed on Saturday that Russian soldiers had used the pipeline in an attempt to gain a foothold, but airborne assault forces promptly detected them, and they responded with rocket, artillery and drone attacks that destroyed Moscow’s units.
“The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” the general staff reported.
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A close-up image of one of the soldiers in the pipeline
The soldiers crept through the tunnel for several miles
It comes as Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces shared a video on Telegram on Saturday which it claims shows Kyiv’s forces repelling Russian forces in Kursk with airstrikes.
Sky News has not independently verified the footage.
Months after Kyiv’s forces seized parts of Kursk, Ukrainian soldiers are weary and bloodied by relentless assaults of more than 50,000 Russian troops, including some from Moscow’s ally North Korea.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers run the risk of being encircled, open-source maps of the battlefield showed on Friday.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said this morning that it had captured a settlement in Kursk and another in Ukraine’s Sumy region.
Russia also launched heavy aerial attacks overnight on Ukraine into Saturday – with at least 22 people killed, including 11 in the frontline town of Dobropilla in Ukraine’s embattled eastern Donetsk region.
Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelenskyy described the attacks as a “vile and inhumane intimidation tactic” by Russia.
The attacks come after the US paused military aid and the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine this month after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Mr Zelenskyy descended into a confrontation in front of the world’s media.
The Trump administration’s stance on Ukraine and apparent favouring of Moscow has sparked concern among European leaders.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics told Sky News on Sunday that European countries should “absolutely” introduce conscription as he conceded the continent was “quite weak” militarily in the face of the Russia threat.
Meanwhile, Russian officials have been criticised after presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders on International Women’s Day.
Russia is often accused of throwing its troops into a “meat grinder” with little regard for their lives.
The local branch of government in the northwestern Russian town of Polyarniye Zori defended itself against the backlash, saying critics were making “callous and provocative interpretations” of the gifts.
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