A major Iraqi-Kurdish chain of migrant smugglers to Britain was dismantled in an operation that led to the largest seizure of nautical equipment ever in France on Monday in the North, the chief of Ocriest announced on Thursday.
“A real factory for the supply of nautical equipment”
During this operation, the investigators discovered in the northern suburbs of Lille “a real factory supplying nautical equipment”, explained Xavier Delrieu, head of Ocriest, the central office specialising in the fight against illegal immigration.
There were “13 boats that can carry 50 migrants each, 14 boat engines, 700 life jackets, around 100 air pumps, 700 litres of fuel”.
Seven people were arrested, four men and three women. Six appeared in court on Thursday, a woman having been released.
Three men are Iraqi-Kurdish, the others – one man and two women – are French.
“€80 000 per crossing”
Investigators have established that since the summer, the criminals had made 80 crossings, 50 of which were successful. They pocketed “80 000 euros per crossing”.
The investigation began in January on the basis of Dutch intelligence received by Uro, the Franco-British operational intelligence unit set up to fight against these networks of smugglers in coordination with Europol and several countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany).
It was a check on the border between Germany and the Netherlands of young people of French nationality, who were transporting boats. These “small boats” came from Germany, transited through the Netherlands to arrive then on the Opal Coast, on the northwest coast of France.
With the Mobile Research Brigade (BRM) of Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais), the investigators then reached the warehouse located near Lille and the operation launched on Monday thanks to a new arrival of boats coming from Germany.
[This article is based on a report in « la Voix du Nord » (Northern Voice), a French newspaper]
Editor’s Note
Some readers might have watched Panorama on Monday 26 September, which was about the migrants crossing the channel. The investigative journalist, Jane Corbin, talked to a man in Istanbul who is running a business arranging for migrants to travel to the UK.. They pay up to €17 000 for this service. He does not think the plan to send to Rwanda migrants who arrive by cross-Channel dinghy will deter them.
“They are willing to die”, he said
He explains the risks to them and asks them to sign a waiver.
Some of the film features the camps in Northern France, with Care4Calais volunteers handing out information about what to do if they get to the UK and are told they will be sent to Rwanda. The journalist asked one Sudanese young man about the Rwanda plan and he said he will not cross the Channel but he is watching the news.
Craig McKinlay, a Kent MP, spoke about the need to stop the people smugglers. He pointed out that many people are waiting for services in the UK and hundreds of people arriving each day put a strain on the services. (The government is spending £5m per day on hotel accommodation for refugees.) The MP said that those arriving are mostly young men, who arrive with new phones, money in their pockets and new hair-cuts. They are not refugees, and are not the most desperate.
The spokesperson from the UN refugee office stated that about 80% of these migrants are in fact refugees.
Your opinion
Criminals or refugee job-seekers? Suppose the UK government just opened a job-centre and visa office in Northern France (which is what KRAN, Kent Refugee Action Network, has called for). The money from these desperate families could then be spent on a special visa and tickets for the ferry. Most of them say they want to go to the UK because they have a family connection. So no need to put them up in hotels. UK economy is faltering because of lack of staff in many sectors, so grant these migrants a special visa to fill those jobs.
It costs a lot of money to treat them as refugees. It also costs a lot to criminalise them and even more to send them to Rwanda. The UK pays a lot to France for the anti-migrant policing along the northern coast of France. As the Lille arrests show, the business of arranging migrant travel is just so lucrative that some people will always find ways to operate in it.
So should we treat the Channel migrants as criminals, or job-seekers? What do you think? Send your ideas to The Editor.
