Kurdish people-smuggler teaches illegal migrants how to CHEAT asylum system
People smugglers operating in France are teaching illegal migrants how to cheat the UK asylum system, an undercover investigation has found.
A crime boss whose gang helps up to 4,000 migrants cross the Channel on small boats every month advises them to falsely claim to have a political reason for coming to Britain so they could 'never' be sent home, the expose by The News Agents Investigates Podcast revealed.
He also tells them to carefully prepare for the extended Home Office asylum interview to ensure they 'make a good case' – and recommended an Indian migrant claim he had problems with the 'Bombay mafia' to get approval.
The Kurdish smuggler explained how, for a charge of just £1,500, his gang chauffeur migrants waiting in Dunkirk camps over 70 miles to a waiting boat on a launch site unknown to local police.
They are usually intercepted a little while after departure and escorted to Dover by the French and English authorities, he said. Migrants are then taken to a four-star hotel where they can make their asylum claim.
An undercover reporter posing as a man hoping to get his cousin on a small boat to the UK illegally was taken to meet the Kurdish smuggler via an introducer he met at the migrant camp in Dunkirk.
Giving his name only as Raver, the trafficker operated from deep in the countryside and refused to go anywhere where there was CCTV in an apparent attempt to avoid detection by the French authorities.
In broken English he explained how his staff take migrants to a previously unknown launch site 75 miles south of Dunkirk in an area called Berck.
He said: 'I take him. I have staff. People that work for me.
'I give him people. I buy that big car.
'This is business. I bring good car and the boat is ready.'
Asked what happens next, he explained: 'When the boat goes into English Channel, police are waiting…
'Security French police are with you. This is very, very, very safe to do that.'
He said English authorities would escort the migrants on the final part of the journey to Dover where they disembark.
'He go to there and he make the asylum claim like normal. He go to hotel, four star.'
He also told the reporter his cousin must prepare for the key interview with the Home Office, which happens some months after asylum seekers arrive in the UK to determine if they are eligible.
'The interview is big. You have to be ready,' he said.
'This is going to be like eight months, maybe like six months [after arrival]…
'You have to make a good case for why you come. Make good case. Political. Humanity.
'Political is good. Political means they cannot bring you back to your country never.'
When the reporter says the problem is that his cousin is from India, which is often rejected for asylum claims, he is told: 'Say you have a problem with the Bombay mafia.'
Raver says he personally helps up to 4,000 people a year across the Channel, and his gang in total smuggles around 3,000 a month on small boats.
He uses weather apps to check conditions before sending boats and tracking devices to check their progress and arrival.