Young Indians ‘pay travel agents £10,000 to cross Channel and join gig economy’
Young Indians are paying travel agents £10,000 to secure illegal entry to the UK via small boats across the Channel, an investigation has found.
Families are selling land and property to raise the funds needed to pay the agents for visa entry, usually through Serbia or Greece, before travelling to northern France for the small boat crossings – which cost £3,500 a time.
They are coming to the UK to work in low-paid, black market jobs in hospitality – the gig economy – as food delivery drivers, or in agriculture.
The trade is being fuelled by adverts on TikTok that promote Serbia as a route into the UK, even though the country closed a loophole earlier this year that allowed Indians 30-day visa-free travel within the EU.
The advertisements show dozens of young Indian men who appear to be aged between 18 and 35 making the onward journey organised by trafficking gangs from Serbia to Austria under a banner welcoming them to the “dark life”.
Home Office figures last month showed that Indians were the second biggest cohort migrating across the English Channel, after Afghans – with 675 Indians arriving on small boats in the first three months of this year.
This amounted to almost a fifth of the total 3,793 people crossing between January and March, and the same number of Indians as the whole of last year.
Promise of a better life
Satnam Singh Chahal, the executive director of the North American Punjabi Association (Napa), a non-profit organisation on illegal migration, said the rising unemployment rate in India and the promise of a better life in the UK were the main reasons behind young men leaving India for abroad.
Legal skilled worker routes require any visa applicant for the UK to have a sponsored job in advance, with a salary of at least £26,200 a year.
“Families feel compelled to sell their land or other properties to send their children abroad because they don’t find jobs in India,” he said.
“They take land routes through Serbia and Greece to enter Europe and finally into the UK through the English Channel.
“There are some of them who will be smuggling drugs like heroin and brown sugar from India to the UK.
“These illegal Indian immigrants will be found mostly in Gurdwaras [a Sikh place of worship], restaurants, and gas stations.
“Entry into Gurdwaras is free for all. They will get free food and shelter, no questions asked whether they are legal or illegal immigrants.”
Crackdown on delivery drivers
Indians were among 60 suspected illegal immigrants working for gig economy firms including Deliveroo, JustEat and UberEats who were arrested last month in a major crackdown by the Home Office.
Immigration officers and police targeted areas in London and the South East, where they stopped delivery drivers to check their identities.
It is part of a Home Office drive to counter claims by some European leaders that Britain’s lax approach to illegal working is acting as a magnet for economic migrants.
Typical of those who have crossed Europe are Lovepreet Singh, 25, and his friend Hardeep Singh, 17, both from India, who crossed Europe from Serbia to Dunkirk in three days.
The Telegraph interviewed them before they got a boat across the Channel.
“The idea of crossing the Channel on one of those boats scares me. I can’t swim. But what are our options?” said Lovepreet Singh.
“We don’t speak French and want to live and work in England. Staying in this freezing cold camp is not an option so we’ll take our chances.
“I have paid around £16,000 to get this far and £2,200 for a boat crossing. We arrived two days ago and we’re waiting for a call from a trafficker so we can leave.”
Arranged marriages
The Telegraph also uncovered evidence of agents offering to arrange marriages for prospective illegal immigrants from India at a cost of £25,000.
The Indian states of Punjab and Gujarat are seen as being at the heart of the trade where young Indian men seeking illegal entry into the UK make arrangements with British women of Indian origin to sign marriage documents in exchange for payment of around £25,000.
“Under the deal, they live separately and go for divorce when the immigrant settles down,” said Mr Chahal.
“It is a common phenomenon. Some women even engage in multiple fake marriages to earn thousands of dollars from this trade.”
Last month, a UK-bound man from Gujarat was arrested at Mumbai airport with a fake passport bearing a different name of a person from a different religion.
Police sources said his family had paid £15,000 to an agent for an arranged marriage with an Indian-born British woman that would allow him to stay in the UK.
“Illegal immigration into the UK is difficult to stop because of multiple reasons. There is corruption and there is growing unemployment in India,” said Mr Chahal.
