Vile migrant smuggler says ‘I don’t care about deaths’ after 27 lost their lives in Channel tragedy
A FIXER for a migrant smuggling gang has bragged of feeling no guilt at sending people into peril — days after 27 died in a Channel crossing tragedy.
The middleman said ruthless trafficking networks did not care about fatalities and would continue plying their vile trade.
The Sun on Sunday was taken to meet the Afghan man — who gave his name only as Bibi — in an encampment in woods near Dunkirk, northern France.
He vowed: “We will keep sending people to England, where they want to go — on boats and in other ways.
"People are not scared and we will carry on doing what we do. The French cannot and will not stop us.
“I don’t feel guilty or care about what I am doing. The deaths won’t stop me.”
Bibi spoke on Friday — two days after women and children were among at least 27 people who perished when their dinghy capsized.
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Victims included Baran Nouri Hamadami, 24, who was hoping to join her Iraqi husband Mohammed Karzan in Britain.
Yesterday, it emerged rescuers had found empty lifejackets in the sea — suggesting the death toll could rise.
The Sun on Sunday can also reveal:
- DESPERATE migrants have started using children as “human shields” — because the presence of kids stops cops intervening without social services. Some have allegedly stolen or bought babies from others at camps;
- SOME have also started to switch tactics and tried sneaking on to lorries due to the dangers of boat travel and plunging temperatures;
- POLICE identified the nationalities of some of the drowning victims from cash they had carried with them from their home countries.
Talking about his role, Bibi said he takes names and locations of those who want to travel, plus a deposit for their crossing — costing £2,500.
The people were in camps scattered around the area on the coastline of northern France.
He then introduces them to traffickers and reported to his “boss”.
When we asked if we could meet this boss, Bibi made a throat-slitting gesture and warned it was “too much danger” for us.
UK-bound migrants are told they are going to a “hotel” — but smugglers take them to holding camps near French beaches where they attempt crossings under darkness.
Although French authorities broke up a camp of 1,500 migrants at Grande Synthe, near Dunkirk two weeks ago, other smaller settlements have sprung up in the area.
One, near Loon Plage — from where Wednesday’s doomed crossing began — stands next to disused railway lines and a canal and is home to hundreds of Kurds from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.
Bibi added: “I don’t feel guilty about what I am doing because it is people’s dream to reach the UK.
“They have travelled so far and need help on the last bit of their journey.
"They love the culture and language of the UK and even support their football teams like Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea.”
Our meeting with Bibi was ended when French cops told us to leave the area as it was “too dangerous”.
People smugglers are said to have urged UK-bound migrants to take kids on small boats to avoid being stopped by police on French beaches.
The new tactic emerged after two French frontier police officers were pictured on Tuesday doing nothing as a group of 40 migrants placed a flimsy inflatable in the sea.
A senior police source said: “They were unable to intervene because there were five young children in the group. Our orders are not to manhandle children or to put them into any danger at all until specialist officers and social services arrive.
“People smugglers are aware of this now, so they make sure there are always a few kids in every boat.”
Yesterday, police were interviewing two boat tragedy survivors — Mohammed Shekha and a Somalian in his 20s — at their HQ at Coquelles, near Calais.
At a makeshift tent city five miles outside Calais, two Sudanese teens vowed to sneak onto haulage trucks.
Mohammed Ahmed, 17, said: “We want to go to England to work. Life is easier there than it is in Europe and we will be looked after.
“We’ve heard what happened but we are not afraid. We will get on to a vehicle and are trying every night.”
Payaz Rahmadi, 30, originally from Uzbekistan, said he had fled Taliban persecution in Afghanistan.
He vowed to walk to the UK through the 31-mile Eurotunnel rail link. Payaz said: “I will walk along the tracks; I can’t go on water as it’s too dangerous.”
A security guard at the Calais TruckStop lorry park said: “It has been calm here until a month ago.
We’ve heard what happened but we are not afraid. We will get on to a vehicle and are trying every night.
Mohammed Ahmed, 17
“We are now getting nightly incursions and attempts to get in. We are expecting this to happen more after the tragedy in the sea.”
On Friday, around 50 Kurdish migrants were taken by coach from Dunkirk to a “clean-up centre” in an accommodation block 60 miles away near Lille.
They are housed and given some money, before being offered the chance to claim asylum in France.
If they reject that, they are allowed to leave.
More than 25,000 migrants have reached the UK this year after crossing the Channel.
The figure has leapt from 8,000 last year and 1,000 in 2019. More than 6,000 have so far made the perilous journey in November alone, despite crossings being much more dangerous in winter.
Last night, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: “These ruthless people traffickers are the lowest of the low. The French authorities should arrest them all.
“If a Sun on Sunday reporter can find out who they are, surely the authorities can arrest them.”
He accused French president Emmanuel Macron of “shedding crocodile tears while he allows this situation to continue”.
No-swim survivor
A SURVIVOR of the migrant boat sinking was last night named as non-swimming shepherd Mohammed Shekha.
The 21-year-old, from the Kurdish region of Iran, reportedly called his family to ask them to “pray for me” before his second attempt to cross the Channel.
Gangsters who organised the doomed journey ordered him to turn his phone off.
He later called his family at home from an ambulance as he was treated for hypothermia by French paramedics after being rescued.
His brother, Marwan, 18, said: “It’s a miracle. He can’t swim at all.”
Shekha had last night reportedly returned to a Calais migrant camp where he was planning another crossing bid.
Ex-camp migrants freed to try again
UK-bound migrants bussed from a coastal camp to government accommodation are freed to try again if they reject the chance to apply for asylum in France.
We watched 50 mostly Iraqi Kurds whisked away by coach from the grim, makeshift camp near Dunkirk to the “clean-up centre” near Lille, 60 miles inland.
The migrants, most of them single men, are given money for food and toiletries and a spell in clean, spacious accommodation before the asylum bid invitation is made.
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One man on the coach, who gave his name only as Nabil, said: “I am glad they are taking us.
“I do not know how long we will be allowed to stay but I will still try to get to England.”
