Who are the smugglers who organize the migrant crossings in the Channel, where fatal shipwrecks occur one after another?

As the number of exiles who are victims of shipwrecks between France and England continues to increase, franceinfo has taken an interest in the people smuggling networks, incriminated by the authorities in each new tragedy.

“When he has a big watch, the latest fashionable cell phone, an authoritarian tone and wants to book for the same evening, I am suspicious,” whispers the receptionist of a beautiful hotel in Calais (Pas-de-Calais). The conversation is conducted in a low voice. A customer seated at the hotel bar could hear this summary description of the smuggler, a real local scarecrow. The elegant three-star establishment is the antithesis of the precarious living conditions of the exiles in the Calais conurbation, installed in camps waiting for the signal to try their luck. There is no need for the smugglers to be economical on the quality of their sleep: organizing the crossing of the Channel is a lucrative operation.

The price varies depending on the community of the migrant wishing to reach the United Kingdom. “For the Kurdish community, prices are around 2,000 euros, compared to 3,000 to 4,000 euros for the Syrian community. For Sudanese people, the prices are lower”says Nikolai Posner, spokesman for the Utopia 56 association. “You have communities that can’t afford to pay for the crossing, so the smugglers lower the fares for them, so that they can be sure that they get across.”he explains.

The more expensive the crossing, the more migrants are supervised, continues this member of the NGO which helps exiles: “The Thai community spends between 10,000 and 20,000 euros and will be accompanied on the crossing.” Globally, the people smuggling business is profitable.between 4.7 and 6 billion euros in annual turnover, according to Europol data, European Criminal Police Agency, dating from 2015.

“They don’t care about our fate, they only want our money”denounces Lucky*, met on a quayside in Calais in mid-September. This 28-year-old Syrian tried to reach the United Kingdom on a makeshift boat five times in two weeks. “The smugglers put 70 of us in a boat designed for 30 people, they don’t care if people die”describes the young man, angry. “Each time, it represents thousands of euros”he emphasizes, saying: “The smugglers are not trying to help us.” His last attempt ended with the boat sinking, without causing any casualties.

“For a few thousand euros, they are ready to sacrifice the lives of these poor migrants”also denounced Olivier Barbarin, the mayor of Le Portel (Pas-de-Calais), the day after the deadliest shipwreck of the year in the English Channel, which left 12 victims. These remarks are in line with the speech given by the authorities with each new tragedy at sea.

“Among the people we call smugglers, we find very different profiles. There is a spectrum of personalities”Nikolai Posner is keen to qualify. The term “smuggler” in itself is imprecise. “In the international law, we talk more about human traffickers”insists Thibaut Fleury Graff, a migration specialist at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas. Migrant trafficking is defined in a protocol: it involves facilitating the illegal entry of a person into a State, in exchange for a financial or other material advantage.

Kamel Abbas, a lawyer at the Lille bar, has been defending these migrant traffickers for years. In the dock, he mainly finds Kurds, Iraqis, Afghans and, more marginally, Syrians in the courts of Pas-de-Calais. “It’s basically about “little hands or lieutenants who end up before the French courts”assures the lawyer, who has handled dozens of cases of smugglers. For them, the The sentences handed down are intended to be exemplary and dissuasive: they range from two to eight years in prison, depending on the degree of involvement in the network, he reports.

The “little hands” of the network are the escorts who take care of the transport of people or objects, those who store the nautical equipment – often coming from Germany – or those whoThey get people into the boat before launching it. Many of these “little hands” claim to be themselvesapplicants for the crossing, the lack of money forcing them to enter the network to finance it. “We don’t have never enough evidence to support it and everyone says so, it’s a bit of their generalized defense system”the lawyer acknowledges.

In the Calais camps, spread over several areas since the dismantling of the “jungle”, the presence of touts is also known. They are responsible for convincing migrants to leave with them, then form groups of around sixty people per crossing. At the risk of sometimes coming into conflict with competing smuggling networks operating in the same areas.O“We find attempted murders in these files, because the organizations are shooting at each other.”noted Kamel Abbas in various cases. Sometimes the Violence is also directed against future migrants to force them to pay or to prevent people from becoming too demanding about the conditions of the crossing.” Contacted by franceinfo, the Office for the Fight against Illicit Trafficking of Migrants (Oltim), attached to the Ministry of the Interior, did not respond.

“The camps are lawless areas, there are guns, violence and a police force that does nothing except evict the exiles.”

Nikolai Posner, spokesman for the Utopia 56 association

to franceinfo

“THE lieutenants are those who are found on site, who bring the nautical equipment, who collect the sums of money”, continues the lawyer. A role that is all the more important since migrants regularly rely on the solidarity of their loved ones through “hawala”, an informal payment system allowing the transfer of funds from one country to another.

The smugglers have a list with the names of migrants, a copy of their passport, and whether or not the requested sums have been paid. “They keep proper accounts and send them regularly photos of this document to inform the head of the organization of the progress” operations, details the lawyer, became, by force of circumstances, a specialist on the subject.

“These are criminal organizations that place no value on life and human dignity.”

Kamel Abbas, lawyer at the Lille bar

to franceinfo

At the end of February, Europol announced that it had dismantled one of the largest smuggling networks. “more important”organising Channel crossings. The investigation revealed that the network could organise “up to eight departures per night”, the price of places on the makeshift ship fluctuates between “1,000 and 3,000 euros”. During this operation, 19 people were arrested in Germany.

But the network leaders, the “bigwigs”, are the notable absentees from the French courts. “They are either in their country of origin, either in England”, Kamel Abbas advances. Not for long, promised the British Home Secretary. In the aftermath of the shipwreck that killed 12 people in early September, Yvette Cooper promised to fight against the “people smuggling gangs” until they are dismantled. An insufficient response for the associations, who see the development of a regular and safe migratory route as the only way to put an end to these deadly networks.

*First name has been changed


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