BBC - Violent Channel smuggling gang's French and UK network

I suspect undercover operations do not stay strictly within the law; the team that uncovered these gangs admitted to making payments to gang members, and they are also able to move more freely between different countries.

Primrose53 I watched the same. funny how they suddenly couldn't speak English and covered their faces and walked off rather fast!

Claremont

Anyone with access to the French Press and Social Media will know that the French are absolutely furious about this deal. the general message being 'how dare they dictate to us when they have chosen to leave the EU- and why should we take back those who have chosen to get on small boats to get to UK'.

Are you sure this isn’t just your take on the situation?
In any case they will have to accept that if nothing else it saves lives lost at sea.

bikergran

Primrose53 I watched the same. funny how they suddenly couldn't speak English and covered their faces and walked off rather fast!

Yes I laughed at that.
The Patrick Christy investigations in France were an eye opener as to how easy it would be for the French police acting undercover to do the same and arrest them.
The BBC investigations much the same and show all it needs is the will for our authorities to get going and act as the BBC did.

Oreo

Claremont

Anyone with access to the French Press and Social Media will know that the French are absolutely furious about this deal. the general message being 'how dare they dictate to us when they have chosen to leave the EU- and why should we take back those who have chosen to get on small boats to get to UK'.

Are you sure this isn’t just your take on the situation?
In any case they will have to accept that if nothing else it saves lives lost at sea.

No, it’s true that officials in Northern France think the deal favours the UK.
www.lemonde.fr/en/immigration/article/2025/08/05/france-uk-migrant-returns-deal-takes-effect_6744088_144.html

Oreo

bikergran

Primrose53 I watched the same. funny how they suddenly couldn't speak English and covered their faces and walked off rather fast!

Yes I laughed at that.
The Patrick Christy investigations in France were an eye opener as to how easy it would be for the French police acting undercover to do the same and arrest them.
The BBC investigations much the same and show all it needs is the will for our authorities to get going and act as the BBC did.

They could arrest the "runners" and the organisers (who are the ones making the big money) would still be sitting in their safe homes laughing their socks off. I don't expect they care any more for the people who do their dirty work than they care about the people they are exploiting. Amateur sleuths like Patrick Christys probably do more to hinder legitimate investigations.

Maybe they don’t care that people may drown crossing the Channel.
They aren’t thinking it through anyway, as less migrants trying to cross on small boats means less migrants going into France at all if the scheme works.

If the runners are constantly arrested then the organisers don’t get the money.

What about the amateur sleuths at the Beeb?

There was a very good Radio 4 series a short while ago where the female reporter and a colleague traced down the routes and names and mo of some of these gangs. They passed info on to the French police but I don't know what happened after that. If these people could find out this info then so could the French police if only they chose to do so.
The latest 'deal' seems a nonsense to me and once again entails us handing over more money to the French, can't understand why they're not happy with the outcome.
Did not like the Rwanda idea but it was a deterrent that seemed to be having an effect as once Labour came in power the nos. escalated significantly.

Oreo

What about the amateur sleuths at the Beeb?

We should thank our lucky stars that both on TV and Radio there are reporters brave enough to take risks, frankly.

Well done to the BBC. Doing the undercover work that the Home Office should have been undertaking. Money would be better spent rather than paying the French billions for so little result. With that kind of money the French should be patrolling beach departure points 24/7 and arresting the smugglers while destroying the boats.

My question, why are the French not manning points of entry into France. If they didn't let them in, there would be no migrants queuing up to get to the UK.

What I don’t understand is
why, having tracked gang members down and witnessed money changing hands, they then waltz up and announce who they are. 🤔

Cue a hasty exit with silly questions being shouted out like, ‘Why won’t you talk to us?’

Am I the only one scratching my head?

I'm not sure the French really care about stopping migrants leaving their shores for the UK. It's not in their interests. All Macron's grand gesturing about France has a shared responsibility and will step up its efforts to deliver sound great, but I wouldn't hold my breath that anything much will materialise. I'm not sure the French really care about stopping migrants leaving their shores.

So can anyone explain.....
Where are these boats being manufactured their hundreds? For every boat that gets across the channel, plus every boat that is punctured, there needs to be some jolly big outfit somewhere producing them.

One wonders if reporters can find out this information, why the police can't. Smashing the gangs doesn't really seem to be much of a priority.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

I'm not the one being stupid!

Patrick Christys discovered virtually nothing. He also alerted the "runners" that they had been discovered. If they're not dropped by the real organisers, they'll be moved on to a new territory with new phones. He discovered far less than the BBC and much much less than the NCA does. He's actually worse than an amateur sleuth.

If you don't know what you're talking about, it's best to say nothing.

growstuff, there have been a number of successful prosecutions after investigations of your so called "amateur sleuths". Far from getting in the way, they have documented evidence the police can use.

Oh dear Primrose, what did you say?

Amateur sleuths cause a huge number of problems. And full on racists like Yaxley Lennon and his mob threaten trials.

Leave it to professionals, instead of using human misery and chaos to raise your profile.

I think the French are only too pleased to see them sail on their merry way. They do very little to stop them. Nobody else wants them except the UK where most end up in hotels.

icanhandthemback

*growstuff*, there have been a number of successful prosecutions after investigations of your so called "amateur sleuths". Far from getting in the way, they have documented evidence the police can use.

They do get in the way. You don't know that the police weren't on to this particular gang and were waiting to see if they could trace the network back to the organisers?

woodenspoon

I think the French are only too pleased to see them sail on their merry way. They do very little to stop them. Nobody else wants them except the UK where most end up in hotels.

Most do not end up in hotels. (sigh - what a shame the facts need to be twisted, so meaningful discussions can't take place).

I'm more than happy to leave it to the professionals, provided they can come up with some results.

I certainly don't have my finger on the pulse where everything is concerned, but here's another question.
If these boats are readily acquired, plus oars and electric pumps etc, (from where no one seems to know), then why can't registration checks and controls be made at the point of sale? At least then there would be some kind of record to trace, like with cars, vans etc. I can't even hire a car at Marseille airport without showing loads of documents and being thoroughly checked out.