People smugglers offer half price summer discount to cross Channel

Telegraph

3 hours ago

People smugglers have halved their prices for migrants to try to cash in on the summer heatwave.
Albanian crime gangs are offering Channel crossings for just £2,000 per person, the lowest price since 2002, partly in an attempt to lure their countrymen back to small boats as a route to the UK.
The number of Albanians crossing the Channel has slumped from 12,658 in 2022, when they were the biggest nationality, to just 630 last year after the implementation of a fast-track deportation agreement with the UK.
It reflects a price war amongst people smugglers offering summer discounts amid evidence that their profits are being hit by law enforcement disrupting supply chains and intercepting boats and equipment.
The lower prices are thought to be behind the increase in the number of poorer migrants now making the journey. Eritreans, who are among the poorest asylum seekers, were the most common nationality arriving by small boat in the three months to June, accounting for one in five or 1,291 of the arrivals.
It follows the disclosure in March that the crime gangs are offering migrants cheaper crossings if they agree to be filmed so smugglers can then use the videos to promote their services on social media.
The hot weather and calm seas have seen 1,733 migrants reach the UK in small boats in the past week, including 919 last Friday, the second highest daily total this year.
Some 16,317 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, up more than 40 per cent higher than at the same point last year and the record for any year since the first Channel arrivals in 2018.
Downing Street admitted on Tuesday that the Channel crisis was 'deteriorating' but is hoping that a change in tactics by the French due to be implemented in two weeks' time will stem the surge.
As first revealed by The Telegraph earlier this month, the French interior ministry has authorised police for the first time to intercept the people smugglers' 'taxi boats' and migrants at sea within 300 metres of the boats in an attempt to prevent them leaving for the UK.
Until now, the French have refused to intervene in the water because they claim maritime laws prevent them from taking action that could put lives at sea at risk. But the French government has given the green light to do so while 'respecting' the 'law of the sea'.
The latest discounted price has been advertised in a public Facebook group called 'Pune ne Angli' ('Work in England'), which is aimed at Albanians and has more than 17,000 followers. 'We have a journey on a small boat. Only £2000,' it says.
'The fall in price is due to a sharp decline in interest from Albanians using small boats. This is the cheapest offer ever, clearly aimed at attracting new clients. Last year, only 630 Albanians made the journey compared to 940 in 2023,' said an Albanian immigration expert.
'Albanians are now avoiding small boat crossings, knowing they will be processed by the Home Office in Dover and likely sent to detention centres, with the aim of deportation.'
In the year to March, Afghans were the most common nationality arriving by small boat with 5,766 arrivals, two per cent up on the previous year. Syrians were the second highest nationality although the fall of the Assad regime has seen their numbers plummet in the most recent quarter, constituting just five per cent of arrivals.
Eritrea was the third highest nationality arriving by small boat in the year ending March 2025, with 4,229 arrivals, an increase of 47 per cent on the previous year.
There has been growing frustration at the apparent foot dragging by the French who so far this year have stopped fewer than 40 per cent of the boats, the lowest proportion on record, despite a three-year £480 million Anglo-French deal to combat the crossings.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, wants French border police and gendarmes to intercept the taxi boats not only in the shallow waters as they leave the beaches but also when they make their way from rivers and inland waterways to pick up the migrants.
The French interior ministry told The Telegraph earlier this month that it will change its tactics 'so that we can operate in shallow waters, up to 300 metres from the coast, and thus intercept 'taxi boats', while respecting the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, known as the Montego Bay Convention.'
It aims to have 'shared guidelines' on the strategy ready for the Anglo-French summit, which starts on July 8, when Emmanuel Macron, the French president, will travel to London for a state visit.