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'appalling racket'
Criminal gangs using TikTok to sell £7k speedboat Channel crossings to desperate migrants
CRIMINAL gangs are charging migrants £7,000 to cross the Channel on a speedboat — and selling the service on TikTok.
It makes the France-to-England crossings for around a dozen passengers a time less likely to be detected — with an advertised journey of just 45 minutes.
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The new tactic comes as France is set to demand multi-billion pound payments annually to help fix the crossings controversy.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will travel to Paris tomorrow to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, who will demand the settlement to put more “boots on the ground” on beaches near the Calais and Dunkirk crossing points.
Mr Sunak this week unveiled his Illegal Migration Bill, which aims to stop migrants from claiming asylum or staying in the UK if they arrive illegally.
The Sun uncovered the short TikTok speedboat video, which shows the craft approaching the shore, with passengers then jumping off into the sea.
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The advert has been circulating among Albanian users on the social media site.
A total of 45,755 asylum seekers crossed the Channel in small vessels last year, with nearly half from Albania and Afghanistan.
Border Force has operational control of the Channel to curb the crossings, with new drones, boats, radar and cameras all being used to track vessels on the water and identify those piloting them.
Tory MP Scott Benton said: “The criminal gangs who are operating this appalling racket are obviously keen to evade the authorities.
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“So alongside the new measures announced by the PM, our Border Force and the joint operation working with France needs to up its game and stay one step ahead.
“The best chance we have of resolving this issue effectively is stopping the boats leaving France in the first place.
"The authorities need to be alert to this new threat and dismantle the deplorable gangs who are behind it.”
Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “The actions of these people smugglers just show what the government is up against.
“By travelling in bigger and sturdier boats, the worry is that they could arrive in the UK beyond the usual routes, making it even harder to detect.”
A government spokesperson said: “Posts promoting illegal routes to the UK are putting vulnerable people’s lives at risk and funding vile criminal gangs.
“Social media companies, such as TikTok, have a responsibility to pull down posts and stop content that promotes illegal and criminal activity.
“The Illegal Migration Bill will change the law so that people who come to the UK illegally can be detained and then swiftly returned to a safe third country or their home country.”
A TikTok spokesperson said: "This video was removed from TikTok and the account had already been banned.
"Our Community Guidelines make clear that we prohibit content that promotes or facilitates people smuggling.
"We have also launched an industry leading search intervention to warn our community of the dangers of human smuggling and trafficking".
Yesterday, the PM dubbed Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer a “leftie lawyer standing in our way”, as the pair clashed over efforts to deter the crossings.
Sir Keir had insisted the Government’s plans will not work.
Mr Sunak told MPs Sir Keir not only wanted to scrap a bid to send migrants to Rwanda, but had voted against measures to deport more foreign criminals and “argued against deportation flights”.
The PM said: “Stopping the boats is not just my priority, it is the people’s priority.”
But the PM is facing a rebellion as possibly up to 40 Tory MPs prepare to force a vote on leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.
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The PM has said he wants the new Bill to go ahead without quitting the ECHR.
It came as a civil service question-and-answer session online found some staff said they were “ashamed” to work on the new migrant policy.
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