Investigation Finds UK-Registered Companies Used for Channel Crossing Payments

An undercover investigation found that people smugglers are directing migrants to pay for illegal Channel crossings through UK-registered companies. Reporters documented the process at three businesses listed at Companies House. The investigation uncovered that smugglers appear to be using UK companies’ bank accounts to help facilitate small boat crossings.

An undercover investigator posed as a migrant trying to cross the Channel illegally in Dunkirk. The investigator was told by a smuggler that money exchange shops in the UK could take payment for the crossing. He told the BBC reporter: “In London, they don't give you a receipt.

They call me to say [they've] got the money. ” He was then informed that he could pay for the crossing at one of three UK businesses, including a shop called Afg Mobile Repair in Woolwich. Reporters were then sent posing as family members of a migrant, and were told that the money would only be transferred to the smugglers after successful Channel crossing.

The companies uncovered are all listed at Companies House, the official government registry for businesses. Authorities have recovered only 10 per cent of the funds that have been made by convicted people smugglers since 2020, according to information from the Crown Prosecution Service.

In that same timeframe, courts ruled that 45 people smugglers convicted in the UK made £16million from their crimes.

The mayor said he was “disillusioned”, adding: “There is no political treatment of the problem.