People smugglers take to Tiktok to promote £12,000 package deal offers for migrants concentrating on the UK – claiming they may discover them a job and a £1,000-a-month residence
Albanian people smugglers are using TikTok to advertise £12,000 ‘package deals’ to Britain including accommodation and employment upon arrival.
Adverts on TikTok show the deals start as low as £2500, promising cash-in-hand work and housing, with payment required only upon reaching Dover.
On Friday, the latest figures revealed that 150,000 small-boat migrants have reached Britain since 2018 after hundreds more arrived on Boxing Day.
The adverts target people in Albania seeking more lucrative work than their homeland and who may be tempted to travel to the UK.
It is said that the smugglers would provide ‘speciliased people’ to pick up arrivals and provide rented accommodation and cash-in-hand work on the black market.
One TikTok account called ‘Journey to London‘ that displayed Albanian and UK flags, said on its advert: ‘We offer journeys from Albania to England.’
Another advert also promised ‘secure journeys’, ‘competitive prices’ and ‘maximum reliability’.
This is believed to be the first time that smugglers have publicly advertised all-inclusive packages to migrants.
The latest Home Office figures showed 407 migrants were brought into Dover aboard Border Force vessels on Boxing Day after being intercepted in the Channel.
The latest Home Office figures showed 407 migrants were brought into Dover aboard Border Force vessels on Boxing Day
In all, 150,220 small boat migrants have reached the UK since the first dinghies crossed in 2018, equivalent to the population of a town the size of Blackpool
It took the total to have arrived since Labour came to power to more than 22,000.
In all, 150,220 small boat migrants have reached the UK since the first dinghies crossed in 2018, equivalent to the population of a town the size of Blackpool.
In the year to March 2024 – the first full year reported since the UK signed a deal with Albania to return illegal migrants to each other – roughly 3,000 Albanians were returned under the fast track returns agreement.
In messages seen by The Times it reveals how one people smuggler told a potential migrant that they could fly him and his fiancée to the UK for a £12,000 fee which would include a house in London to rent for £1,000 a month and ‘simple work’.
One TikTok post that was viewed over 1,800 times, showed a smuggler claiming: ‘I am in Dover waiting for my clients to arrive on a boat and for the payment.’
Another featured photos of boats, promising ‘secure crossing 100 per cent’ for £2,500 per person, with ‘payment in sterling upon arrival in the UK.’
Potential migrants were also told to take advantage of the busier travel period over Christmas, telling one couple: ‘You can do this over Christmas. Its messy and busy at the airports.’
The deal included finding passports that matched the couple’s appearance as they were offered the choice of travelling to the UK by boat, aircraft or lorry.
It took the total to have arrived since Labour came to power to more than 22,000
They were quoted a price of £12,000 for the flight option with a ’99 per cent guarantee’.
Albanian ‘migrant brokers’ tend to be used as middle men for organised crime groups to find potential customers earning commission for each person they pass on.
The middlemen than connect the migrants to the criminal network who are able to place them on boar crossings to the beaches in northern France.
TikTok said that it had proactively removed adverts and directed directed users to a website called Stop the Traffik for information on dangers of human trafficking
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘These despicable people-smuggling gangs are exploiting vulnerable people by peddling lies on social media and placing them in horrendous conditions, working for next to nothing.
‘Anyone found to be doing this will face severe penalties, and we are working with the National Crime Agency and major social media companies to rapidly remove online adverts promoting dangerous small boat crossings. Since July, arrests against illegal working have risen by nearly a third compared to the same time last year, and we have also increased enforced returns by 25 per cent.’
