Channel migrants could provide intelligence on people smuggling gangs (Image: GETTY)
Britain’s FBI wants Channel migrants to join the fight against people smuggling gangs by anonymously providing intelligence on them, the Daily Express can reveal. The National Crime Agency has held talks with the Home Office about creating lines of communication to some of the 45,755 arrivals last year.
Investigators believe many were “brainwashed” by smugglers and social media posts advertising “safe” routes to the UK.
But they could now be pivotal in providing vital clues to investigators on the smugglers’ identities, the routes they take and how they control different camps in Northern France.
The NCA believes migrants will realise the immense danger people smugglers put them, and their children, in and may be motivated by trying to prevent friends and family from being put in peril.
Gangs are also buying cheap, dangerous single-use boats made just for a solitary Channel crossing, the Daily Express understands.
Investigators believe migrants are ‘brainwashed’ by smugglers (Image: GETTY)
Paul Morris, a senior member of the National Crime Agency’s team investigating organised immigration crime, said: “These migrants are finding themselves now integrating into communities.
“But we’re really keen to hear from those individuals.
“At the time, they wanted to get here, they’re almost brainwashed with the social media from the facilitators.
“They’ve arrived here. They may now realise the risks that they’ve undertaken or the risks their children have been put through, or their family members in the future.
“We’re really keen to engage with those members of the community now because they may hold some really important information about the facilitators, the groups, and their journey.”
Mr Morris said many of the migrants come from countries where there is no trust in the police or the authorities.
He added: “Part of our process will be initially using Crimestoppers, completely anonymous and that is the way we’re going to start to communicate out to individuals.
“Our angle is, at the end of the day, they are human beings. Not everyone, although they’ve arrived here criminally, committed offences.
“We just want to explain the differences between the UK authorities and police forces and start building that trust because, like general policing by consent, we’re only as good as the intelligence we are getting from our communities.
“Yes, some we will need to pursue because they are causing us problems, but there is a vast number that we can work with.”
NCA believes migrants will realise the immense danger people smugglers put them in (Image: GETTY)
Asked if the NCA had spoken to the Home Office about the idea, Mr Morris said: “They understand that there’s no one silver bullet. Yes, we will pursue the criminals and those criminal elements.
“A lot of our information comes from that initial engagement with migrants as they come off the boats and if there are individuals already here that can tell us about their journeys, and are happy to, then we really want to reach out to them and the Home Office will understand that that will build on our knowledge of the wider threat.”
Senior members of the NCA also revealed gangs are, “en masse”, buying cheap boat engines so poorly constructed that they cannot be sold in Europe.
They are also increasingly concerned that profits from Channel people smuggling operations are being reinvested in drug and gun crime networks. People smuggling is feared to be a “stepping stone” into even more lethal trades.
The Home Office fears around 80,000 migrants will cross the English Channel this year. The NCA admitted 2023 is likely to be another record-breaking year as refugees flee wars, natural disasters and economic catastrophes.
Mr Morris said: “When you look at those numbers and why we say they are going to be higher, part of that is because if we look at the areas that are suffering from conflict, and with really drastic living standards, that is increasing.
“They [the smugglers] are reassuring people that you can use the small boat method, it is extremely cheap and when you get to the UK, you are over the goal line and you are made for life.
“All those messages are wrong. More and more migrants that have arrived by this route are realising it is not such a pleasant environment.”
The Daily Express has been told there are criminals in the UK exploiting the Channel migrant crisis.
But the NCA does not currently believe any heads of the smuggling gangs operating in the Channel live in the UK.
Kurdish gangs are still largely believed to control most of the smuggling routes. But the lengths of the beaches in Northern France means “there is still space” for more gangs to operate, despite many taking “control” of migrant camps and even certain beaches where they launch their boats from.
The smuggling networks are said to be “younger” and more “chaotic” than traditional organised crime networks which rely upon clear structures.
Amid an influx of Albanian migrants crossing the Channel last Summer, investigators were concerned other gangs may try to wrestle control from the Kurds.
Albanian crime gangs have brutally gained control of Britain’s cocaine market and dominate in nearly every city.
But the NCA told the Daily Express they are not seeing cocaine and gun-running gangs shifting to people smuggling as there are greater profits in the “more traditional commodities”.
Mr Morris said: “The profits that can be made from the people smuggling, small boat method, are there because the volumes of customers, passengers being put on those boats
“There are still much better profits on the more traditional commodities. If we are looking at trafficking in a shipment, there may be shared loads. They may mix commodities. It might even put firearms on drugs loads.
“The only issue is, and this happens across other commodities, is if they are lower sophisticated, they are starting to make money in this area, then if they want to make more money and become more successful, they will move into those other commodities.
“The money they make from this will undoubtedly be invested into those commodities. If you think, one of our issues with the small boat issue, it is UK-specific.
“Facilitators are living within their communities, are making money from this and will be expanding into other criminalities.
“We’re not seeing people coming from drugs or other more traditional commodities. As I’ve seen in our thematic reporting, this is their stepping stone into that more profitable work.”
People smugglers are trying to boost their profits by cramming more migrants into dangerously poor-quality boats.
But gangs are attempting to cut costs as well, by purchasing “single-use” boats and engines.
Katherine Tyler, the head of the NCA team fighting organised immigration crime, told the Daily Express: “The boats that we are seeing being used are sometimes single-use boats.
“They are not boats that you would see for sale through the normal market.
“They are specifically made, in order, for single use, perhaps specifically for crossing the Channel.
“The greatest concern is that the numbers of migrants per boat is steadily increasing.”
Mr Morris added: “They are using very low quality engines. Brand new, single use and the indications are they are being bought en mass.
“They are low quality, cheap, mass-produced engines which the criminals involved basically use as a single-use disposable engine, like the boat.
“That’s probably the actual regard they have for the human beings on the boat.”
