A violent smuggling gang operating in France and the UK has been exposed. Jabal, Aram and al-Millah have been identified as the leaders of one of the main groups in Calais who organise migrants to go to Britain across the Channel. Other senior figures have also been found out, including Abdullah and Besha – the latter has since claimed asylum in West Yorkshire.

During an undercover BBC investigation, where a reporter posed as a Syrian migrant, one smuggler, Abdullah, insisted there was no danger in a camp of tents hidden in Dunkirk. He told the journalist: “You are welcome to stay here. We’ll get a boat ready nearby and set to sea. We need to move early to avoid the police – it’s a cat and mouse game.” He added: “God willing, the weather will be on our side.”

When the man posing as a Syrian migrant asked Abdullah “should I bring a lifejacket?”, he chillingly responded: “That’s really up to you.”

The smuggler explained that the trip would be with “a mixture of Somalis, Sudanese, Kurds and so on”, before boasting about two successful dinghy launches to England the previous week. Each boat was carrying 55 people.

Abdullah is an increasingly powerful and senior gang member, the broadcaster reports. The group of which he is the leader is one of four gangs operating crossings from northern France, which manages crossings.

Other smaller gangs simply supply passengers to the launch points.

Jabal, one of the gang leaders, and the same name of the smuggling group, controlled logistics from Belgium and France. After being confronted by reporters in 2024, he vanished.

“He fled after your intervention in Luxembourg, and he changed his phone and probably fled abroad,” said Xavier Delrieu, head of the French police’s anti-smuggling unit.

“His whereabouts are now unknown. The investigation is continuing.”

Pascal Marconville, lead prosecutor at the regional Court of Appeal for northern France, likened the system to a game of “chess”, adding that “they’re always one step ahead of us”.

More than 25,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year, with 898 arriving on Wednesday last week, Home Office figures show.

This is the earliest point in the year that the figure has been reached. The total for the whole of last year was 37,000, which is 25% more than the year before.

Since Labour came to power last July, the party has vowed to “smash the gangs” by ramping up enforcement action against smugglers, including by setting up a Border Security Command to lead the strategy and intelligence sharing to tackle crossings, across national agencies and internationally.