Members of Border Force escort migrants back to Dover Marina today

More than 5,000 Albanians have crossed the Channel by small boat so far this year – including more than half of yesterday’s 600 arrivals, it has emerged.

Albanian drug lords are sending so-called ‘cleanskins’ with no criminal record to Britain to become embroiled in organised criminal gangs, reports David Barrett of the Mail+.

And checks on Channel arrivals are failing to pick up connections between some arrivals and human-traffickers in the Balkans, sources have said.

It is feared migrants with no criminal records are being drawn in to serious crime such as drug gangs in order to repay debts they owe to people-smugglers.

‘Cleanskins’ is a term first used by security services in Northern Ireland during The Troubles to describe recruitment of terrorists with no criminal record by IRA and Loyalist paramilitaries. 

It comes as official government figures show than 21,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats this year to date.

Members of Border Force escort migrants back to Dover Marina today

Members of Border Force escort migrants back to Dover Marina today

Official figures showed Albanians made up the largest group making modern slavery claims between April and June, with 1,130 applications (pictured: People smugglers are using TikTok to sell Channel crossings)

Official figures showed Albanians made up the largest group making modern slavery claims between April and June, with 1,130 applications (pictured: People smugglers are using TikTok to sell Channel crossings)

REVEALED: People-smugglers charging migrants £17,000 to sneak into the UK via the English Channel and North Sea on luxury yachts 

Ruthless people-smugglers are sneaking Albanian migrants into the UK on luxury yachts as part of a ‘premium’ trafficking service.

Posing as a migrant, an undercover MoS journalist last week contacted Albanian crime bosses who claim to be regularly using yachts to smuggle people across the English Channel and North Sea.

One trafficker offered a place on a yacht leaving Belgium this weekend for £17,000, while another said there was space on a yacht leaving from near Calais for £16,000.

The MoS revealed last weekend how a leaked military intelligence report showed four in ten migrants crossing the Channel in small boats this summer are from Albania – a member of Nato where there has not been a war for 25 years.

Now the investigation has exposed how people-smugglers are using TikTok to target Albanian migrants, cynically urging them not to risk their lives on packed inflatable boats, but instead opt for ‘safe’ passage by luxury yacht.

Astonishingly, detectives in the Netherlands say people smugglers have been caught using yachts to target the UK along a stretch of more than 100 miles of Dutch coastline from Vlissingen in the south to Den Helder in the north.

Most of the passengers on intercepted vessels were Albanian nationals, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, a national police force, said.

In one six-week period in June and July, 1,075 Albanians arrived in small boats, almost one in four of the total for the period, The Mail on Sunday revealed last week.

A significant proportion of Albanian arrivals end up committing crimes, in a kind of ‘revolving door’ into UK prisons, the source added. 

A deal with Albania, signed by Priti Patel in July 2021, has led to a rise in the number of criminals sent home, with the Home Office currently chartering one removals flight to Tirana each week.

But the influx across the Channel vastly outstrips the numbers being removed. The National Crime Agency is working with local police in Albania to prevent people heading for Britain, and is cracking down on smuggling gangs, it is understood.

Reforms of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 were imminent but were postponed due to the Tory leadership contest, an insider added.

Miss Patel has also appointed a top QC, Harish Salve, to conduct a wider review of the legislation.

Last week official figures showed Albanians made up the largest group making modern slavery claims between April and June, with 1,130 applications. Yesterday figures published by the Ministry of Defence showed this year’s small boat arrivals reached 20,017 after 607 migrants were brought into Dover on Saturday. At the same point last year, the figure was just over 11,300.

A total of 21,058 people have made the treacherous journey across the 21-mile Dover Straits in 2022 – almost double the 11,599 who had arrived on British soil this time last year.

August alone has seen 4,659 people intercepted at sea by Border Force officials, making it a record month for the year so far.

The busiest day for 2022 came on August 1 when 696 people reached the UK in 14 boats – an average of 50 people per vessel.

This was closely followed by Wednesday (August 17) which saw 606 people cross the Channel in inflatable dinghies or other small craft.

Despite strong winds at sea, crossings began in the early hours of the morning and continued throughout the day.

Around 10am Border Force catamaran Typhoon brought at least 80 people into Dover, Kent.

The mostly male group were led along the gangway by soldiers dressed in camouflage fatigues.

Among them were a primary-school aged girl and boy, both wrapped in a blue blankets, and a baby wearing a blue life jacket with sea creatures on it.

Around an hour later Border Force cutter Hurricane arrived at the harbour carrying dozens more migrants.

A few women and children were helped off the vessel first, followed by a number of young men.

At approximately 2.30pm Border Force vessel Volunteer escorted another group of migrants to the port.

Their life jackets were removed by Border Force staff before they were led onto a coach to be taken for processing by UK officials.

Border Force boat Ranger intercepted around 50 more people at 5pm. Among them was a young woman carrying a tiny baby in a blue blanket and an elderly man who had to be pushed along the gangway in a wheelchair. A teenage boy could be seen laughing and giving a reverse victory hand gesture towards onlookers as he disembarked the boat.

Wednesday witnessed a total of 606 arrivals from northern France (pictured in Dover today)

Wednesday witnessed a total of 606 arrivals from northern France (pictured in Dover today)

August alone has seen 4,659 people arrive in the UK aboard dinghies from northern France

August alone has seen 4,659 people arrive in the UK aboard dinghies from northern France

The French coastguard also intercepted more than 100 people in the Channel on Wednesday.

The regional operational and surveillance centre (CROSS) in Griz-Nez identified several boats in difficulty in the Calais Straits.

It tasked the French Navy boat Flamant with picking up 62 stranded people and dropping them off at the port of Dunkirk.

While the French Navy tug Abeilla Normandie was tasked with rescuing 39 migrants and dropping them off at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Once at the dock, they were taken care of by the departmental fire and rescue service and the border police.

A Government spokesperson said: ‘The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable.

‘Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws, but they risk lives and hinder our ability to help refugees who come to the UK through safe and legal routes.

‘The Nationality and Borders Act will enable us to crack down on abuse of the system and the evil people smugglers, who will now be subject to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

‘Under our new Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda, we are continuing preparations to relocate those who are making dangerous, unnecessary and illegal journeys into the UK in order for their claims to be considered and rebuild their lives.’

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