People smuggler convicted in France now seeking asylum in UK, BBC discovers

Jamal’s case is not isolated. Law enforcement officers in Europe have told us they know of 15 people smugglers with convictions from courts in France, Germany and Belgium, who they believe are now living in the UK and claiming asylum under false names.

We learned about one man convicted in France, who is now living in Manchester selling used cars and thought to be still involved in people smuggling.

Another man, also with a French conviction, is based in Blackpool. He has claimed asylum under a false name and boasts on social media of being given leave to remain.

Since Brexit, the UK no longer has a data-sharing agreement with many countries in the EU, making it more difficult to check criminal and immigration records of asylum seekers, according to Lucy Morton of the Immigration Services Union.

“If we were able to share databases, even if just with our nearest neighbours, with Germany, with Belgium, with Holland and France, say – then, yes, we’d know that they had a conviction for people smuggling,” she said.

Asylum seekers are fingerprinted on arrival in the UK and checked against UK police databases, but these would not necessarily show a conviction from another country.

The Home Office told us: “All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to confirm their identity for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks.”

This point was also made last November, external by the Minister for Border Security, Alex Norris, who added that to protect the integrity of the checking processes, details about the checks “are not disclosed publicly”.

The Home Office went on to say that the UK has “a number of agreements with countries which enable the sharing of criminal record information”, and that immigration enforcement action is currently at its highest level in history, with arrests for illegal working up 83%.