People smuggler laughs off lorry tragedy and offers a ticket to the UK on the same route for £14,000
A TRAFFICKER has laughed off the deaths of 39 people found dead in a lorry, saying: “It’s the luck of the draw.”
The man, identified as Kastrijot Ahmati, also said he can arrange people to be smuggled into the UK along the same route travelled by the lorry for £14,000.
On Wednesday, the bodies of 39 Chinese migrants were found in temperatures of -25 degrees in the back of a lorry in Essex.
Driver Mo Robinson, who made the discovery, denies any knowledge of the presence of the migrants, but has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter.
In the wake of the tragedy, Ahmati continued to advertise a smuggling service by posting his mobile number to a Facebook group called Albanians in London, the Mail on Sunday reports.
The group has more than 16,000 followers.
Ahmati, who lives in Walthamstow, northeast London, is from Albania and claims to have been smuggled into the UK in the back of a lorry himself.
Speaking to a reporter on Friday, he claimed to be able to provide “fake papers” that would allow the reporter to fly to the UK from Albanian capital Tirana at a cost of £17,000.
‘WE WILL DIE’
He also offered to arrange for the reporter to be brought into the country in a lorry from Belgium, from where Mo Robinson’s lorry travelled before arriving in Essex.
He said the journey typically takes 12 to 16 hours, depending on whether the ferry is delayed.
The reporter would pay once she had arrived in the UK, but Ahmati said that someone in London would need to act as a guarantor for the money.
When the reporter said she was “scared” by the news of the deaths on Wednesday, Ahmati said: “It is the luck of the draw. That is how we all came.”
When she repeated her worries, saying, “We will die”, Ahmati laughed.
It is not known how long Ahmati has lived in the UK, but social media posts suggest he has been here since at least September 2018.
Asked for comment by the Mail on Sunday last night, Ahmati said he had been “joking” in his posts to Facebook.
His Facebook account, on which he used the alias Kace Kace, was later taken down.
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Figures released by the National Crime Agency in March said the number of suspected victims of modern slavery in the UK in 2018 stood at 6,993, up from 1,746 in 2013.
Of those, 947 were Albanian, meaning Albania had more nationals among the potential victims than any other country.
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