18-07-2025
Children smuggled from Britain to France in reverse Channel crossings
Children as young as five were smuggled in refrigerated lorries heading to France by a London-based gang in a rare example of a reverse illegal Channel crossing.
Investigators believe the gang carried out 20 runs between February and October 2023, the equivalent of more than two a month.
Migrant smuggling from the UK to France is rare but demonstrates the continued lengths gangs are going to profit from people smuggling, in whichever direction.
In 2024, 93 migrants were arrested for crossing illegally from the UK to France, according to data from the Hauts-de-France prefecture.
The migrants trafficked by the London gang were brought to the UK on tourist visas, which can allow arrivals to stay for up to six months.
Migrants who arrive legally in the UK on tourist visas can not necessarily be deported if stopped at the French border.
Once they arrived, the migrants, who were from French-speaking North African countries, were packed into lorries bound from Dover to Calais, where it is thought they were hoping to settle.
Azize Benaniba, a 41-year-old Algerian national and ringleader of the operation, was responsible for loading hundreds of migrants into the lorries and charging them £1,200 each for the trip.
Some of the lorries were unrefrigerated and airtight, putting those inside in severe danger of overheating and suffocation.
His co-conspirators, Mohamed Bechkit, 36, Mahmoud Haidous, 53, Abed Karouz, 40, Amor Ghabbari, 32, and Mohamed Abdelhadi, 50, organised the runs and hired a network of willing drivers.
Mohamed Bouriche, 43, was responsible for transporting people to rendezvous locations near the UK border where they would be moved into the lorries.
The group's activities began to unravel on Feb 21 2023, after 58 migrants were discovered by French border police hidden inside a lorry at Calais, having arrived from the UK and an investigation was launched by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Surveillance teams successfully intercepted several lorries travelling to the UK border and rescued those inside.
Footage retrieved from a phone belonging to Bechkit showed a group of terrified migrants screaming and crying for help inside and banging on the sides of the trailer.
One attempt on Sep 6 2023 saw 39 migrants, including women and children, loaded into an airtight refrigerated lorry trailer at a lay-by in Sandwich, Kent.
NCA officers quickly intervened to rescue the migrants, but a few of them, including a child, required medical attention.
The ringleaders were all arrested six months later in co-ordinated dawn raids in North London on March 20 2024.
The NCA described the case as an anomaly and that it was a departure from the usual model of smuggling migrants from Calais into the UK, either via small boats or in lorries.
The North African migrants, who spoke French, wanted to settle in France as it would be more familiar than the UK, The Telegraph understands.
Benaniba was jailed for 12 years and 11 months at Isleworth Crown Court on July 17.
Bechkit was jailed for 10 years and four months, Haidous received 13-and-a-half years, Karouz eight years and 10 months, Ghabbari nine years, Abdelhadi seven years and three months, and Bouriche seven-and-a-half years.
John Turner, the NCA's senior investigating officer, said: 'These smugglers had no care for the safety or wellbeing of the people they crammed into lorry trailers – their only concern was making money.
'We've seen the fatal consequences of this crime type, as migrants have sadly lost their lives being smuggled across borders on land and at sea.
'Our thorough investigation has safeguarded hundreds of migrants who were put in serious danger, and has now led to jail terms for 12 members of a prolific people smuggling network.
'These criminal networks treat human beings like commodities, and we know the gangs and drivers involved in outbound smuggling are often involved in inbound smuggling too.
'Tackling organised immigration crime is a key priority for the NCA, and alongside our international law enforcement partners, we are relentless in our efforts to dismantle these networks wherever they operate.'
Janine Baugh, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'This was a highly organised group which tried to smuggle migrants to France more than 20 times.
'They put the lives of people at risk – often in inhumane conditions – just to profit off others. We presented the court with a video of people screaming to be let out of a trailer, which demonstrates these poor conditions.
'The Crown Prosecution Service will continue to work with our partners at home and overseas and play a vital role in the Border Security Command in order to bring those involved in organised immigration crime to justice.'
