People smugglers are using UK-registered companies as a way for migrants to pay for illegal Channel crossings, an investigation has found.
The investigation uncovered that smugglers appear to be using UK companies’ bank accounts to help facilitate small boat crossings.
An undercover investigator posed as a migrant trying to cross the Channel illegally in Dunkirk.
The investigator was told by a smuggler that money exchange shops in the UK could take payment for the crossing.
He told the BBC reporter: “In London, they don't give you a receipt. They call me to say [they've] got the money. When you cross, they transfer to me.”
He was then informed that he could pay for the crossing at one of three UK businesses, including a shop called Afg Mobile Repair in Woolwich.
Reporters were then sent posing as family members of a migrant, and were told that the money would only be transferred to the smugglers after. successful Channel crossing.
He said: “If your people do not cross, if he tells me to return your money back to you, I'll do it.
The businesses are all registered with Companies House
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“You can't count on boats, you never know, God forbid the boat sinks, and all of them [drown].”
When they then returned to confront the man they were told: “We don't move money… we have only phone shop.”
The companies uncovered are all listed at Companies House, the official government registry for businesses.
Authorities have recovered only 10 per cent of the funds that have been made by convicted people smugglers since 2020, according to information from the Crown Prosecution Service.
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Over 200,000 migrants are thought to have arrived in the UK since 2018
| PAIn that same timeframe, courts ruled that 45 people smugglers convicted in the UK made £16million from their crimes.
The CPS said that people smugglers are “only in it for the money” and they are working to remove their profits “wherever possible.”
The investigation comes as GB News exclusively revealed 200,000 illegal migrants had crossed the Channel since records began in 2018.
Sir Keir Starmer had said that he was going to “smash the gangs” and stated, “If you're going to smash a gang that is driven by money, follow the money.”
However, officials in France have claimed his new £662m plan to stop migrants “will not change anything.”
Antoine Benoit, the Mayor of Audresselles, nearly 10 miles west of Calais, commented: “We have gendarmes driving all night – it will not change anything.”
Mr Benoit said he was “disillusioned”, adding: “There is no political treatment of the problem. We are not listened to.”
Alain Boonefaes, a deputy mayor in charge of security in Gravelines, told La Voix Du Nord: “The money of the British will be used to secure a sector but we only move the pile of sand.
“It starts from everywhere. It is a subject that must be dealt with at the global level. We have no solution.
“There will always be an influx of people who want to join the UK.”
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