Latest news with #Ramsgate
The Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
The brazen Brit traffickers using astonishing legal loophole to ship in migrants for £12k a head to work on YOUR street
WITH his easy-going charm, former British soldier Nick fitted in with the wealthy yacht owners sipping gin and tonics on their decks at Ramsgate Marina. Having grown up sailing on the Channel with his dad, he was thrilled with the 21ft-long yacht he had recently bought and loved to take it out at night, enjoying the peace and freedom he experienced under the stars. 9 9 9 9 But these trips were fraught with danger because amiable, good-humoured Nick was actually a secret people smuggler on his way to pick up illegal migrants at Dunkirk in France and bring them to the UK. And, in choosing Ramsgate, he was deliberately flouting the law under the very noses of the UK Border Control based there. It's a far cry from the image of hazardous crossings, with migrants packed on to inflatable rafts, that we see in the news. In fact, it was all plain sailing until Nick was eventually rumbled. But he says that the luxury yacht crossings that he pioneered continue to happen every day from swanky marinas around the country. The astonishing revelation comes after 1,194 migrants crossed the Channel on small boats on Saturday, marking the highest daily number of migrant small boat crossings since 2022. Nick (not his real name) reveals his story to investigative journalist Annabel Deas in the 10-part BBC Radio 4 series Shadow World: The Smuggler. 'We all think we know who people smugglers are,' says Annabel. 'They are people from far away countries with different values and ideas. People who can somehow justify making money out of desperate migrants. "At least, that's who I thought they were. But what if some of the people illegally smuggling migrants into the UK are actually from here? British people smugglers with an intimate knowledge of our borders.' The builder turned smuggler Nick had unexpectedly become a people smuggler in 2009 after his work as a self-employed builder dried up and his Albanian employee, Matt, told him that he could make easy money as a white man with a British passport. With a baby on the way, he was desperate and soon discovered how easy it was to take his car on to the ferry at Dover, pick up pre-arranged illegal Albanian emigrants at Dunkirk and hide them in the boot as he drove back on board for the return journey. Once on the ferry, he would wait for people to evacuate the car deck, then go down and release the man from the boot of his vehicle before finding a suitable lorry for the migrant to cut a hole through the tarpaulin and hide inside. At Dover, he sent a picture and registration plate of the lorry to a member of the Albanian gang keeping watch and then drove through passport control in his car. That was his work done. The following of the lorry and getting the immigrant out of it was somebody else's business. Nick would pocket £3,500 for his 'day trip to France". 'It was so easy,' he says. 'I did it many times and made good money.' His girlfriend broke up with him a few months before their baby was born, but by now, Nick was enjoying the lifestyle. However, after several successful runs, his luck ran out when his car was pulled over to be checked at Dunkirk and a migrant was found hidden in the boot. Nick feigned surprise he was there but he served five months in a French prison before being released. It was a relatively short sentence because they were unaware that he was a seasoned people smuggler. 9 While he was in prison, he heard that Matt had also been caught after a hidden migrant unexpectedly jumped out of a lorry after leaving Dover and got his foot caught in the wheel. The police were called and their investigation led to Matt receiving a seven-year prison sentence. Having served his time in France, Nick returned home to England and began trying to get work as a decorator, but within days he was visited by a mysterious man and woman who refused to identify themselves. 'They showed me a long list of ferry bookings from Dunkirk to Dover, all booked under my name and said, 'You're going to help us or we're going to hold you responsible for some of these.' I had a feeling they were from MI5.' So, for a time, in 2015, he acted as an undercover informant, providing details about the workings of the Albanian gang who had employed him, before one day it suddenly ended. 'The guy just said to me, 'Thank you for your help but we don't need it any more.' And that was it.' After Matt was granted early release, in 2017, he contacted Nick about a new operation brokered by a glamorous, middle-aged Vietnamese woman called Lin, who wanted to smuggle in her fellow countrymen to work on the 35 cannabis farms she had set up around the UK. This time Nick would receive £12,000 per migrant – almost four times the previous rate. It was too tempting to turn down. No longer able to book ferry crossings without alerting the authorities, Nick came up with the idea of using a sailing boat. Matt was surprised but was eventually persuaded and they purchased a boat. Nick then set about finding the perfect route, studying tidal charts and maps, and eventually settled on Ramsgate, Kent, where the UK Border Force is based. 'I chose it because I could monitor them,' he explains. 'It's a big marina and difficult to watch everyone and there would be several shifts of observers. "Also, if you pretend that you are one of the wealthy, who can sit around on boats, then you will fit in. And I do that well.' Lucy Moreton from the Union for Borders, Emigration and Customs, representing frontline staff, says: 'We know that small boats in and around the UK don't declare who they are or who they've got on board and don't say where they are going. They don't have to. 'The law doesn't require them to do that. Generally, they are an independent bunch and the vast majority of them are completely law abiding and just want to go out and sail around. "But that does leave a really exploitable loophole for individuals who want to do harm. There could be thriving small boat traffic that we're not actually looking at.' 9 9 9 After months of planning, Nick set sail from Ramsgate at 1am. Directly, it should only take a few hours but he was being careful and headed north for at least an hour in case anyone was watching. Once he was sure of not being followed, he made a sudden U-turn in the middle of the North Sea and began heading south to Dunkirk where four Vietnamese men were waiting for him. Back in Ramsgate, with the four migrants hidden in the cabin, he moored the boat, walked away and drove home. Following the plan, one of the Albanians would go to the marina and, under cover of darkness, collect the migrants. Once they were taken safely to the cannabis farms, Nick would be paid. But on one occasion, when the migrants were collected while it was still light, they were observed by others and the police were contacted, and Nick had to stay away. A surveillance team was called into operation to keep an eye on Nick's movements. Nick managed to carry out his ruse for up to 18 months before being caught. In late summer 2018, officers spotted him sail into view with four Vietnamese men in his boat. He was arrested and charged with conspiracy to facilitate the illegal entry of foreign nationals into the UK and sentenced to eight years in prison. 'What Nick was doing was unprecedented,' says Annabel. 'Smuggling people into the UK using a boat was virtually unheard of in 2016. You could say that Nick paved the way for the small boat crisis that would come later.' Dinghy crisis More than 13,000 people have crossed the English Channel on small boats so far in 2025. Last year, 78 people died attempting to make the journey - a record number. 'Most gangs now use small, over-crowded, inflatable boats to send people across the English Channel, knowing that once they enter British waters, those on board will be intercepted by Border Force and brought safely ashore. The migrants are then placed in hotels while their asylum claims are considered,' says Annabel. 'But what about the people who don't want to be rescued and instead want to creep in unnoticed, like the ones Nick brought in? 'He told me that right now, gangs are still smuggling people into the UK using marinas and yacht clubs around the country.' 'While we were making this series, a luxury yacht, hiding 20 Albanians below deck was intercepted on its way to a marina in Cornwall.' Labour's vow to 'smash the gangs' won't see Channel migrant numbers fall until NEXT YEAR, sources warn Labour's promise to "smash the gangs" will not see Channel migrant numbers fall until at least next year. Measures to break the route "up stream" by tackling smugglers and boat suppliers will take months to trickle down according to law enforcement sources. Ministers have been warned good weather this year is also contributing to a surge in crossings that are on course for a record year. The number of so called "red days" when the calm seas and wind make it perfect to cross have doubled in 2025 so far according to the same point last year. And intelligence monitoring of the Channel has indicated a rise in migrants from the Horn of Africa has seen riskier and larger crossings attempted. Those smugglers are cramming more people into boats, which is also pushing up the numbers. More than 13,000 people have already made the journey this year, putting 2025 on course to have the highest ever number of crossings, since records began in 2017. Government insiders are highly pessimistic about the prospect of reducing numbers this year. And they warn that policy changes and increase in enforcement measures not noticeably pay off until 2026 due to the high numbers of migrants already in France and ready to attempt the perilous journey. Former Border Force chief Tony Smith told the BBC the "vast majority" of the agency's resources were deployed to the Small Boats Operational Command and that he would like to see focus on other marinas. "My preference certainly would be to be able to deploy more widely and to look more across the whole of the UK coastline to identify threats," he said, adding he thought the interviews with Nick would be "really, really helpful as another source of intelligence". Nick insists small marinas are still being used today and adds: 'People are going to hate me because there'll be smuggling going on now. When they hear this, there's going to be an issue. "I regret a lot of it, but I don't know that it would have ever been any different," he says. "I think I was always out for self-destruction anyway."
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Manston staff asked to work overtime amid record number of small boat arrivals
Staff at the controversial Manston migrant processing centre in Kent have been asked to work overtime to deal with the record number of small boat arrivals, the Guardian has learned. The 11th-hour appeal to staff on Saturday evening to work was circulated by Management And Training Corporation (MTC), one of the Home Office's contractors on the site near Ramsgate, due to concerns about not having enough staff on duty. More than 1,100 migrants arrived after crossing the Channel on Saturday, the highest number recorded on a single day so far this year. The latest Home Office figures show that 1,194 people arrived in 18 boats, bringing the provisional annual total so far to 14,811. This is 42% higher than the same point last year (10,448) and 95% up from the same point in 2023 (7,610). It is still lower than the highest daily total of 1,305 arrivals since data began in 2018, which was recorded on 3 September 2022. A source said that staff shortages, particularly for night shifts, were a long running concern at Manston, which has been criticised for keeping people seeking refuge in the UK in squalid and unsafe conditions. Speaking on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News, John Healey said: 'Truth is, Britain's lost control of its borders over the last five years, and the last government last year left an asylum system in chaos and record levels of immigration.' The defence secretary said it was a 'really big problem' that French police were unable to intervene to intercept boats in shallow waters and that the UK was pressing for France to put new rules into operation so it could intervene. The record number of crossings has come after a new report revealed that the number of asylum seekers including children jailed for crossing the Channel in small boats has doubled in the last year. The report, 'I told them the truth', from Border Criminologies and the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford, includes casework information from the NGOs Humans For Rights Network, Captain Support UK and Refugee Legal Support, freedom of information data, court case observations and interviews with some of those jailed. The research finds that since the previous government introduced the Nationality and Borders Act, which contains the new offence of 'illegal arrival', the number of people convicted of this crime has jumped from 253 between June 2022 and October 2023, to 455 between June 2022 and December 2024. Many of those prosecuted come from conflict zones including Sudan, South Sudan, Libya and Syria. The report said approximately half of those convicted were accused of steering dinghies across the Channel. Researchers found that many had been forced to do so by smugglers or agreed because they could not afford to pay for a place on a dinghy. Of those prosecuted since 2022, 29 told the Home Office they were children but were recorded as adults. At last 18 of them spent time in prison cells with adults. Seventeen of the 29 were later accepted to be children, while others are still undergoing the age assessment process by social workers. Of the 29, all but one are black African, mainly from Sudan and South Sudan. The report calls for the immediate end to criminalisation of people who have no way of claiming asylum in the UK other than travelling via dinghy or in the back of a lorry. Yassin, 17, who was prosecuted as an adult and jailed alongside adults for boat steering, despite insisting he was a child, was confirmed to be 17 after a social services age assessment. He said: 'The time that I spend in there [Elmley prison], I wouldn't wish it on my enemy to spend that time. Really it is bad days, bad days. People think that six months and eight days is easy, but it is not easy. You can lose your mind.' Home Office sources said that to reduce the likelihood of children being imprisoned as adults for immigration offences, officials had updated guidance to ensure 'age-disputed' cases were identified to the CPS when a referral for prosecution was made. A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security. The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay – and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice. 'We are introducing new laws which will boost our ability to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal gangs, increase the action we are taking to tackle illegal working, and strengthen the security of our borders.' MTC has been approached for comment.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
My day drinking in Britain's biggest Wetherspoons
A pie-eyed 60-something lady blows me a kiss before collapsing on the backseat of a cab outside The Waterfront pub. It's 5pm and she's peaked too soon. But haven't we all? Alcohol consumption is in terminal decline, apparently. It's all bubble tea and kombucha from here on in, people. Not in this town it ain't. Not in Ramsgate. The quayside pubs are heaving on this sunny Saturday afternoon, literally overflowing with red-skinned drinkers clutching fags and pints. Talk of the faded British seaside feels wide of the mark here. Ramsgate is pumping. I watch a white-aproned man pack his seafood kiosk up for the day as wide boys drive their bulging biceps and Botoxed babes around in Beemers. Bronzed families with the sand between their toes flip-flop home from the beach, past pretty yachts in the marina and hipsters sucking roll-ups outside the Queens Head. Dapper pensioners pick a path through the eclectic human traffic with a smile. They were young once. I head to the Wetherspoons for a pint. The Royal Victorian Pavilion is not just any 'Spoons – it's Britain's biggest, a cathedral of a pub, and fresh from a £750,000 refurb. Not that the punters have noticed. 'I'm not sure what they've done apart from plant these flowers, which look nice – I might slip them into my handbag,' says Lin Brown, who's drinking on the rooftop terrace with her friends. The girls are here for pre-drinks – 'we'll shimmy into town later' – and life admin. 'We're booking tickets to see Spurs in the Europa League Final,' says Brown (who won't regret that purchase). 'We booked a holiday to Egypt last week.' Why the 'Spoons? 'It's cheap,' they say, in unison. They're not wrong. My pint of Ruddles cost an almost laughable £1.79. It's like being in the Eighties again. Shame about the atmosphere, though, which inside the pub was flatter than my ale, forcing me out onto the busy terrace where I pulled up a pew near the girls. 'I thought you were a stripper when you came over,' says Jen Cavelle, or 'Mrs C', clutching my arm. 'It's my birthday tomorrow. I thought these girls had got me something.' I can't work out if Mrs C is disappointed or relieved that I'm not a stripper. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I'm flattered or offended that she thought I might be. The girls have been coming to the Pavilion – originally a concert hall – since before it was a 'Spoons. 'It used to be a nightclub,' says Mrs C, who went on the pull here. 'The lights would come on at the end of the night and I'd think 'f****** hell, who's this?' Beer goggles!' While other British seaside towns have withered since cheap flights pulled the beach towel from under their feet, Ramsgate is holding its own, reckon the girls. This despite being in Thanet, one of England's most deprived regions. 'It's got a buzz,' says Brown. 'The pubs are busy, even in winter. It's vibrant, there are always bands on.' The g-word inevitably rears its head. 'It's gentrifying,' says communications officer Natalie McAleer, who moved here from the capital. 'There weren't many London-type places a couple of years ago but now there are more wine bars, more coffee shops. I think it's following in the footsteps of Margate, which is basically Shoreditch-on-Sea.' Ramsgate's liberal London blow-ins make for odd bedfellows in a region that has traditionally shown strong support for Nigel Farage's party du jour. The town's dichotomous demographic was brought into sharp focus in May's local elections, which saw Reform take the largest share of votes – followed by the Greens. It's two-party politics, but not as we know it. One certified vote winner would be to reinstate the Ramsgate to Dunkirk ferry. 'We used to do 'flasher trips' to France, didn't we girls?' says Mrs C, to a hum of approval. 'You'd get on for a quid, flash your passport, have a disco and a smorgasbord, then stock up on duty-free and sail home. We didn't even get off in Dunkirk. Happy days. They need to bring the ferry back.' That's the plan, only attempts by Thanet district council (rated 1.8 out of 5 on Google) to entice a new operator have hitherto failed. The region's nascent wind industry has at least got going, bringing jobs to a region where the once-thriving fishing industry clings on like a limpet. Doing my bit for the local economy, I head across the road to Pete's Fish Factory, which lures me in with the smell of deep-fried delights. I order cod and chips to eat near the marina. Mick Huggett has the same idea. 'I'm here on a beano,' the Londoner tells me. A beano, for the uninitiated, is a traditional Cockney daytrip to the seaside, usually involving pub visits and sunburn. Watch the Jolly Boys' Outing episode of Only Fools and Horses and you'll get the gist. 'We got off the coach at midday and were straight in the pub. We've been on it since. It's nice to get out of bloody London,' says Huggett, a technical services coordinator. 'We've done Brighton a few times, Margate, too. I'm pleasantly surprised by Ramsgate. People said it was a bit rundown, but it's lovely.' It's hard to disagree as I walk around town, which Van Gogh wrote fondly of during his brief stint here as a teacher. Ramsgate's Victorian architecture is charming. I lose myself down narrow lanes, lingering outside antique shops and art galleries, and pretty pubs like the Horse and Groom, where leather-clad punks share space with pensioners wearing Reform badges. Acting on an earlier recommendation from McAleer, I walk uphill, following the giant Victorian arches overlooking the marina to Seabird, one of her favourite bars. I'm passed three times along the way by a bloke driving a flatbed Transit, with branches in the back, techno on the stereo and a beer in his hand. But that's Ramsgate. 'You could walk down the street wearing a bin bag on your head and nobody would bat an eyelid,' says Seabird's manager Ellie Dobson, while a flat-capped DJ spins funk. Seabird, which sells 'killer cocktails' and small plates, is new to Ramsgate and a welcome step change from the raucous old town. 'Everything is made here,' coos Dobson, tickling my palate with fragrant potions which slip down with notes of fresh mint and coriander. Seabird's owners Damian Williams and Stuart Langley are hospitality veterans from London, which is not a dirty word in here. 'There are two types of DFLs,' Dobson explains. 'You've got your down-from-Londons and your d***s-from-Londons.' Her colleague Frankie Alphonso belongs to the former camp, but encountered plenty of the latter in nearby Margate, where she moved on an impulse, but never felt accepted by the cliquey 'cool kids'. She feels more at home in Ramsgate, where she lives now. I'm minded of a sense of belonging later, walking past the Red Lion, where a band covers Creep by Radiohead. 'I'm a weirdoooooo, what the hell am I doing here?' the singer wails. He's in good company. Plenty of weirdos in Ramsgate, thank heavens.
BBC News
26-05-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Weather concerns pause Ramsgate return for Dunkirk Little Ships
Just a handful of the Little Ships which sailed from Kent to Dunkirk for the 85th anniversary celebrations will return today as planned due to weather of ships which took part in Operation Dynamo will not sail on Monday, 26 May after organisers warned that conditions in the English Channel were "pretty much on the limit".As few as seven ships could make the return journey to Ramsgate due to the conditions, with the rest expected to sail on Saturday, 31 May, a spokesperson for the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (ADLS) have been taking part in celebrations to commemorate the voyage to save allied soldiers from the French coast between 26 May and 4 June 1940. Mick Gentry, of the ADLS, said: "It will be touch and go."The crossing on Wednesday was pretty much on the limit of where we like to be weather-wise."We are hoping for some divine intervention. It's paramount that we look after the old girls."A total of 66 boats from across Europe set off from Ramsgate on Wednesday, 21 May for Dunkirk as part of the commemorations of Operation than 338,000 soldiers were rescued, with almost 100,000 troops picked up off from the beaches by the little ships and ferried to larger commemorative voyage was the first which did not include any Dunkirk veterans, the ADLS of the ships last made the journey in 2015, to mark the 75th anniversary of Operation Dynamo.
The Sun
22-05-2025
- The Sun
UK's largest Wetherspoons with beachfront pub garden that was inspired by Versailles
DESPITE the bad weather set to plague the bank holiday weekend, I've found the best spot to hole up in. The Wetherspoons pub in Ramsgate is one of my favourite places to go when the weather is miserable - and its the largest of its kind in the UK. 4 The Royal Victoria Pavilion, now a Grade-II listed building, was originally a concert hall and assembly room when built in 1903. It was said to have been inspired by the Little Theatre in Versailles. A newspaper article stated: "Marie Antoinette's Little Theatre at Versailles inspired the original interior of the Royal Victoria Pavilion." It then into a nightclub, then a casino, before closing in 2008. Nearly 10 years later, it was bought by Wetherspoons who opened it as a pub in 2017 after a £4.5million renovation. It is right on the beach so if the rain eases up at all, it makes a great spot to walk up and down after a big lunch. Living down the road in Folkestone, I'll always stop in at the pub when I've over in Ramsgate - especially when its one of the few places you can get a glass of wine for under a fiver these days. But even without the pub garden right on the sand, the huge pub has more than enough space. Spread across two floors, there are 907 tables which means a huge 1,500 people can visit at one time. And the best views line the walls of the pub, which overlook the harbour. World's BIGGEST Wetherspoons has secret weapon that gives it an edge, say punters at pub with room for hundreds 4 There are even two bars - one upstairs and one downstairs - so you don't have to go too far. Last year it underwent a £750,000 renovation which includes new carpets and tables, as well as a new tea bar and more plants. Manager Chris Whitbourn said: "It was important that we did the external redecorations to keep it looking good for the whole of the town. "Doing the garden has been something we wanted to do for a long time and just with the timing of it, we could do it all at once. Here are some other beautiful Wetherspoons in the UK. Wetherspoons opened its first pub in 1979 with a branch in north London and now it has 809 branches across the UK. There are also plans for planning to make up to 50 new " Super Spoons", like the pub in Ramsgate.
