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The hot-weather has meant more people are trying to reach the UK in small boats organised by smuggling gangs. And they are getting more sophisticated all the time, says Sue Mitchell whose own investigation took her to corner shops in Nottingham and affluent suburbs in Europe
L
ast year, my colleague Rob Lawrie and I set out on a secret mission. I’m an investigative journalist, Rob’s an ex-soldier, now an aid worker, and we have combined our talents in the past, working on immigration stories. Together, we had tracked and traced families, some with tiny children, across Europe and spent time in the French camps as they prepared to reach Britain.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, says it will take time to get investigators and new technology in place, but has pledged to “go after the criminal gangs at the heart of this”. But the challenge the government faces is enormous, as we discovered when we set out to track down and expose the smugglers themselves. The people who organise the operations, commission the boats and promise entry to the UK via rubber dinghy.
