A former marine has shared his experience of going undercover at a Calais migrant camp and crossing the channel in a dinghy where "nobody caught" him despite claiming that there were a few opportunities.
Lee West spoke to GB News and revealed the truth about the experience the migrants have, from their accommodation to their dangerous journey.
West revealed that the camp was "not what he expected" when he arrived and explained that it was not people sitting around a campfire.
Speaking to Patrick Christys he said: "You think that this is just one big, harmonious camp where they're all united in their goals and the aim of getting across the channel. It isn't at all. We found the exact opposite. We got there and we found there were different tribes camps and settlements in different areas."
Lee West shared his story with GB News
GB News
He added: "So we got there and we found there were these very fractured camps, and there was a lot of tension there as well. A lot of drinking, which our picture showed with the discarded cans and kegs, we also definitely saw the effects of drugs."
"We saw a lot of hallucinogenics. And then come darkness, they're all getting a bit more drunk and a bit more edgy. The tensions would spill over and they would become a lot more violent towards each other. And so it wasn't a very pleasant environment to be in."
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Speaking about the help that the migrants get from charities, he explained: "They tell them how to fill in paperwork and what to say. They're fully briefed up on what to do when they get there[to England].
"No Borders was the biggest one we came across who were just so overt about their actions and what their purpose was.
"They think there should be no borders. Everyone should be able to go where they want and we will help them do that. We saw that, of course, the people were looking at us thinking, are these here to help us as well?
"So initially we were welcomed and we embraced that and we didn't want to just go probing them straight away. We just wanted to sit around the campfire.
Lee West crossed the channel in a dinghy
GB News
"We had a few beers as well, to blend in as you do and to relax us, and then as naturally as it does, we'll have a joke with them, start talking to them, and eventually their stories would come out."
Moving onto the second part of the undercover mission, which was the trip across the channel West said: "A friend came across on the ferry with a van, so he could have been intercepted, and he had the deflated dinghy in the back of the small engine.
"We went down to the slipway and pumped the dinghy up on the beach with a 12-volt battery from a van. We nearly woke up half the coast. It was so loud.
"No police, no gendarmes, no nothing and we were near the old migrant camp."
West made it across the channel with "no preparation"
GB News
West made it across the channel with "no preparation" and landed safely on the beach in Bristol.
He said: "We'd embarrassed them.
"We'd got across the channel with zero preparation and planning, limited resources as you could get just a boat and a small engine, no support, not even a bearing.
"We'd embarrassed them. You could tell because the police arrested us, and banged us up for 14 hours. They had all the videos on my phone which were clearly us messing about on the channel, not trafficking people, but we'd embarrassed them."
