Overview
- Following Monday's undercover BBC reporting, smugglers in a Dunkirk camp directed a researcher to pay for a Channel crossing through UK‑registered firms.
- At a Woolwich phone shop, a worker offered to take about £3,000 in cash with a promise to refund if the trip failed, while a smuggler quoted £2,700 for two people and shared UK bank details the BBC checked.
- The named outlets — a phone shop in Woolwich, a wholesaler in Newcastle and a Cambridgeshire car wash — appear on Companies House, and staff or owners denied wrongdoing or said they would cooperate with authorities.
- Law enforcement on both sides also reports a reverse route, with several hundred people moved from the UK into France in lorries for seasonal work, fees ranging from £400 to £1,300, and drivers paid per passenger.
- Authorities say they are tightening the squeeze, with NCA arrests up more than 55 percent in the year to April 2026, a Home Office claim of a 74 percent rise in gang disruptions since July 2024, and a new unit announced to shut high‑street fronts and seize cash.