Gang offering illegal immigrants ‘guaranteed passage’ to Britain for up to £9,000 has been smashed
Police in Calais have busted a people smuggling network and arrested four Albanian people traffickers
POLICE in Calais have busted a people smuggling network offering illegal immigrants 'guaranteed passage' to Britain for up to 9,000 pounds each.
French frontier police officers surrounded three hotels in the northern French port and arrested four Albanian people traffickers in synchronised dawn raids today.
The gang had been using the Citadel, Pacifique and Bel Azur hotels to house migrants before smuggling them aboard lorries and ferries to the UK, local public prosecutor Pascal Marconville said.
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He added: "The arrests came after a surveillance operation over the past three weeks.
"They had been offering migrants a guaranteed passage to England for between 5,000 and 10,000 euros per head, depending on the form of transport used to get them across the Channel."
All were now in custody in Boulogne and would appear in court in the coming days, he said.
The arrests come after French officials revealed last week that British-bound migrants were now arriving back in Calais at a rate of more than 100 a week following the closure of the Jungle refugee camp, which was demolished last October.
A police source estimated that around 15 are arriving each day, France's Le Figaro newspaper reported.
Gael Manzi, a volunteer at refugee aid group Utopia 56, said: "It is hard to know how many migrants are currently in Calais, as they tend to hide.
"But each night we give out food and sleeping bags, there's a real need for it."
Francois Guennoc, vice-president of the Auberge des Migrants aid group, added to Le Figaro: "The migrants are coming back, and government is in denial about the current situation in Calais."
Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart last year blamed the UK's 'black market economy' and 'cushy benefits system' for the thousands of migrants in her town.
She said at the time: "Calais is a hostage to the British. The UK border should be moved from Calais to the English side of the Channel because we're not here to do their jobs."