Rwanda policy ‘a running joke’ in migrant camps as people smugglers ‘laugh off’ threats

The source, who has intimate knowledge of the smuggling gangs in the camps of northern France, agreed to speak exclusively on the understanding his identity would be protected.

GB News met him on the edge of one of the main migrant camps at Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk.

WATCH HERE: GB News exposes what people smugglers really think of the UK's Rwanda plans

Just days earlier, hundreds of French police raided the camp, along a local rail line, clearing more than 1,200 migrants and destroying their tents.

But as we filmed there, it was clear the migrants were back.

This time, multiple smaller campsites have sprung up, further into the woodland, away from the spots regularly raided by police.

Our source told us there were still thousands of migrants camped out around Dunkirk and Calais, with many others further inland as well.

We saw dozens of migrants boarding a bus near the Loon-Plage camp, heading for regional government accommodation away from the coast.

But we were told they would be back here as soon as they got the call from the people smugglers to let them know their boat would soon be launching.

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Our source said the camps could no longer be classed as refugee camps, but instead were little more than "people smuggling hubs."

No one in the camps was worried about UK Government plans to send migrants to Rwanda, he said.

In fact, the whole issue was a source of amusement.

"Mention Rwanda now and people here in the camps just laugh. It's become the butt of jokes around here," the source said.

"The migrants are well aware of the difficulties the UK Government is having around this policy.

"The threat hasn't put anyone off from coming here, because no one thinks for a second they'd be heading to Rwanda if they make it to the UK."

He said that governments and law enforcement agencies had consistently underestimated the industrialisation of the smuggling trade, which was now extremely well organised.

"They've now got proper paid advisers linked into Met Office data on weather patterns and tidal flows.

"If there's a weather window of a few hours, they'll know that. They've become much more sophisticated."

Claims by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that his Government’s Stop the Boats policies had led to a significant reduction in the number of migrants crossing the Channel are "not supported by the fact on the ground," The source claimed.

He said the reduction in small boats had been driven in part by poor weather, and also by the smugglers themselves.

"By not pushing off as many boats, that creates more of a demand for places on the boats, and pushes up the price."

You only need to take a trip to the railway station in Calais, to see evidence of the continued arrival of new migrants into this area of northern France.

Police patrol the platforms, but are seemingly powerless to stop the arrivals.

GB News spoke to a group of young Afghans.

They had just arrived off a train from Belgium and said they planned to camp around Calais, as they wait for a small boat to take them to the UK.

Iraqi Kurds are still the predominant group in control of people smuggling in northern France.

An Eritrean gang is currently attempting to "muscle in" on some of that business, but for now; the Kurds remain firmly in charge of the lucrative trade in human cargo.

But the ultimate control is held by Kurdish gangs based in the UK, using go-betweens in multiple countries.

Our source told us that the gangs had now adopted the same methodology used by organised crime groups in their drug smuggling operations.

Along drug routes, cartels will tip off law enforcement about a drug mule on a particular smuggling route, so that other drug mules on the same route can get through undetected.

"They'll send 10 boats out, but leak the location for one or two launches.

"The French police seize them and everyone's happy.

"The French tell the Brits they're stopping boats on the beaches, meanwhile the bulk of those boats are still getting through."

The source dismissed claims by the British Government to have reduced the number of Albanian illegal immigrants by 90 per cent since signing a deal with the Albanian government.

He said: "The numbers on the boats may be down, but make no mistake, they're still coming.

"They're arriving clandestinely in the back of trucks.

"The Albanian gangs seek out willing lorry drivers, often from Poland, who they pay to smuggle them across Europe, and then across the Channel in the backs of their vehicles."

With the onset of Winter, the frequency of small boat launches is reducing.

But the new arrivals continue to swell the makeshift campsites around Calais and Dunkirk, until the next set of police raids in this seemingly never-ending cycle of UK-bound migrants flowing through this area of northern France.