People smugglers offer Albanians ‘super-price’ deals for brothers and sisters illegally crossing Channel
PEOPLE smugglers are offering Albanians “super-price” deals for brothers and sisters illegally crossing the Channel.
The usual rate is £5,000 per person – but TikTok gangs are slashing that to £3,000 a head for siblings.
In a video on the social media site, the crook says 40 migrants will be sent on a 12m boat from Calais to Dover, Kent.
They say the journey begins when the water is 30cm deep, and that it is “100,000 per cent safe”.
They are cashing in on the huge wave of Albanians landing in Britain.
A third of the 33,029 migrants who crossed the Channel between January and September were Albanian.
In a video showing a deflated dinghy in a car boot, the smuggler, posting under the username @calais_dover8, writes: “Journey starts from Calais to Dover, two hours 30 minutes.
“Brother and sisters super price only £3,000.”
The TikTok user acts as a middleman who puts the migrants in touch with crooks in France.
Migrants message the user, who gives them the phone number of a smuggler to arrange their crossing.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke has urged the Government to clamp down on the “TikTok traffickers”.
She told the Commons the Online Safety Bill should be amended to make the Channel crossings a crime.
The offence would be “intentionally sharing a photograph or film that facilitates or promotes modern slavery or illegal immigration”.
Ms Elphicke said it would “help prevent people from risking their lives taking these journeys across the English Channel”.
Our story comes after Albania’s ambassador told MPs on Wednesday that the Balkan state is “safe” – making a mockery of the thousands of small boat migrant asylum applications.
Qirjako Qirko also spoke about how Albanians are travelling to the UK after seeing TikTok ads.
He told the Home Affairs Select Committee: “I have been in contact with some people asking for our embassy services.
“Some of them explained that yes, we are victims of TikTok and Facebook, we have come here because we thought it was easy to start a business.”