'Guaranteed trip to France, Germany, England, God willing'.
With ads like this on social media, people smugglers are trying to offer their “services” to individuals who want to come to Western Europe. Britain's National Crime Agency has managed to get thousands of such ads from social media, hoping to strike a blow against illegal migration. The recruiting texts provide an insight, as revealing as it is disconcerting, into the world of ruthless people smugglers.
More than 12,000 ads, in dozens of languages, have been taken offline, Sky News writes. The ads were in Albanian, Farsi and Pashto, among other languages, and could be found on X, Facebook, Telegram, YouTube and TikTok. According to the ads, the guarantee of arrival in the United Kingdom is “100 percent. In addition, people can buy a Schengen visa for 750 euros. For 6,000 euros, you can even avoid being able to be sent back, the many ads lead us to believe.
An ad with the image of a speedboat states in Albanian: 'We bring people to the UK by speedboat. It is arranged within 45 minutes. The crossing is 100% guaranteed. Don't waste this opportunity. Soon we will be ready to leave. Send us a private message'.
Another ad, including a map showing a red line from Albania to the Channel, offers '100% guaranteed (safe) travel', adding, 'Recommend our trips to a friend and win 500 euros'.
Asylum seekers are also being smuggled into the European Union from the Balkans through a network. There are allegedly dozens of networks between Bosnia and Croatia. A “package trip” to the Netherlands would cost 3,000 euros.
Similar advertisements for human smuggling to the United States were taken from TikTok earlier. There, people from Central America were made palatable with a one-way trip to the United States for only $7,000.
Taking the thousands of ads offline began in December 2021. The action was done in collaboration with social media giants. “This work is hugely important and we will do everything we can to tackle the criminals who shamelessly promote their human smuggling online and use social media to profit from human misery,” British Secretary of State for Immigration Angela Eagle spoke.
“Protecting our borders has never been more important. Together we will take the necessary action to tackle illegal migration at its source, dismantle gangs and prevent them from putting the lives of vulnerable people at risk.”
Dan Barcroft, the director of the National Crime Agency, speaks of a great success: “Taking these kinds of ads offline is very important. Many people smugglers abuse social media to sell their 'wares.' So this kind of action should ensure that we disrupt the networks. Tackling these kinds of ads directly seems, on the face of it, to have a positive effect.”
Earlier this year, four Vietnamese were arrested in the United Kingdom for creating and sharing ads on Facebook for people smuggling between the UK and France. An Iraqi was nabbed a month later for the same offenses.
The new Labour government is trying to curb cross-Channel human smuggling with a new set of measures, after shooting down the previous Conservative government's Rwanda plans. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government plans include setting up a new border protection system and more cooperation with neighboring European countries.
Nevertheless, Yvette Cooper, the new Home Secretary, did warn that the end of the arrival of small boats full of asylum seekers is not yet in sight.
Not only is the United Kingdom suffering from a wave of migrants, neighboring Ireland is also experiencing a large increase in asylum seekers. Most have arrived there via Northern Ireland, fearing the (now scrapped) Rwanda plan. Most of them are staying in tent camps in the capital, Dublin. This to the disgust of local residents.
Due to the large housing shortage, sentiment in Ireland against migrants is growing. Partly for this reason, the Irish government has now designated the United Kingdom as a “safe country,” but it is still unclear where the many asylum seekers in Ireland will now have to return to and whether that will happen. Bizarre ads give revealing insight into world people smugglers: 'Recommend our trips and win 500 euros'
'Guaranteed trip to France, Germany, England, God willing'. With ads like this on social media, people smugglers are trying to offer their “services” to individuals who want to come to Western Europe. Britain's National Crime Agency has managed to get thousands of such ads from social media, hoping to strike a blow against illegal migration. The recruiting texts provide an insight, as revealing as it is disconcerting, into the world of ruthless people smugglers.
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