I spoke to a migrant smuggler – 1 breathtaking admission left me flabbergasted.H
Many of the things ‘Haji Ajmal’ betrayed a confidence, an arrogance. But it’s possible he revealed the smugglers’ real fear
Migrants are crossing the Channel in their droves (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA)
Describing details of his business, migrant smuggler “Haji Ajmal” spoke with a quiet arrogance. That of a man who had got away with it for 15 years.
And during my 45-minute interview with the Afghan criminal, I was blown away by what he said. Bravado is to be expected. Especially among smugglers. One source once explained to me that they can be very charming people, because they need to convince people that climbing into a boat or a lorry won’t be the worst decision of their lives.
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But Ajmal made no secret of his network being willing to use violence. He insisted it’s necessary. I’ll publish the words on Monday so you can see for yourselves how callous they are.
Yet, even that couldn’t prepare me for the most surprising thing I’ve heard while interviewing a criminal in a long time.
“We have some people inside the Government to report to us what’s happening,” he claimed. “They give us some information … There are some people who are taking money. They are helping us.
“I can’t say how many people are in the UK. They will give us reports ‘okay, we have checkpoints’ or ‘today, we have police searching’.”
Slightly flabbergasted, I said: “That’s an extraordinary thing to say.”
Not that a criminal gang could have inside informants. Unfortunately, the National Crime Agency has acknowledged the threat gangsters pose to those working in the police, immigration, customs and the wider public sector.
But that Ajmal was so freely admitting it.
Any fans of spy novels will know how key protagonists are willing to lie to people they love to protect their most crucial assets.
And here was Ajmal explaining to me precisely what these insiders allegedly do. It could be a devious bluff designed to throw investigators off their scent.
But I didn’t get a sense that it was.
Because he insisted it wasn’t just the case in the UK. “But from Turkey to the UK.”
Shabana Mahmood is under pressure to end the Channel migrant crisis (Image: Getty)
He felt so emboldened that he could brag about it to a journalist.
And he clearly wasn’t bothered by law enforcement agencies like the National Crime Agency threatening to hunt him and his accomplices down.
Smugglers have said that to me before – the risk of capture is outweighed by the prospect of vast sums of money.
But I was also taken aback by Ajmal’s astuteness.
He said “I’m not an educated person” before offering a critique of politicians’ repeated failures to deport illegal migrants.
The veteran smuggler pointed out how leaders repeatedly vow to take action against them and deport illegal arrivals.
Yet it rarely happens.
And he admitted smuggling gangs use similar tactics when talking about the routes to migrants trying to reach Europe.
They effectively lie about the carnage they will face. The dangers of the flimsy boats, or the overcrowded or refrigerated lorries.
He said: “We tell a lot of things to our clients. ‘Okay, we’ll take you to the UK, or Europe, without any problems’. ‘We will do this, we will do that’. But when it comes to action, we miss a lot of things.
“We are much better than politicians. At least we manage to send some people to the other destinations.”
But perhaps Ajmal’s bolshiness here exposed something else.
The smugglers’ real fear – that if Governments were to deport tens of thousands of people who arrived by boat or lorry, their business would collapse.
Behind the arrogance and bravado could be dread.
