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A convicted people smuggler, once described as “the godfather” of the French migrant camps, is living in Leicestershire and believed to be seeking asylum while working illegally, a BBC investigation can reveal.
Twana Jamal was given a five-year jail sentence in France in 2016, where authorities described him as one of the most successful people smugglers ever caught.
Prosecutors said the Iraqi Kurd, aged 36 at the time, had earned up to £100,000 a week for moving illegal immigrants across the Channel.
Following a tip-off this year, we traced Jamal to the village of Blaby and witnessed him working, driving a car without a licence and apparently using a false name.
Jamal’s presence in the UK raises serious concerns about whether existing border controls are effective in checking asylum seekers who have committed serious crimes overseas.
Immigration officers have told the BBC that since the UK left the European Union, it has become more difficult to check criminal records from some other countries.
We have also been told by law enforcement officials in mainland Europe that 15 other convicted people smugglers are now living in the UK under false names.
The man known as ‘Pasha’
Our exposure of Jamal came about as part of a BBC investigation which led to the arrest of a leading people smuggler, Kardo Jaf. That story is told in the BBC Radio 4 podcast, To Catch A King.
Intrigue: To Catch A King
A new people-smuggling boss is running routes into the UK. Who is he, and can his true identity be revealed? Sue Mitchell and Rob Lawrie investigate.
We received a tip-off that Jamal, another major figure in the trade, was now living and working in the UK. He was described as driving a BMW and looking “very very rich”.
Like Jaf, Jamal was linked to the so-called Ranya Boys, one of a small number of Kurdish gangs who European law enforcement agencies say have come to dominate cross-channel people smuggling over the past 15 years.
Jamal’s trial in France gave us key details about his background. Prosecutors said that from about 2012 until 2016, he had been operating out of the Grand Synthe camp near Dunkirk, charging his customers £4,500-£5,000 to cross to the UK.
At that time, the mode of travel preferred by cross-channel smugglers was freight lorries rather than small boats.
The court also heard that Jamal’s nickname in the camps had been “Pasha” – a Turkish word meaning someone of high rank.
Jamal claimed in the French court that his had been a case of mistaken identity, but he was found guilty and told he faced deportation back to Iraqi Kurdistan after his release.
Image source, Getty ImagesDespite having served time in a French jail, however, he entered the UK and, when confronted, told us he had applied for asylum and was “still waiting”.
There are several legal barriers to criminals claiming asylum in the UK. The law says anyone who has spent 12 months or more in prison overseas should face a mandatory refusal.
However, it could be that Jamal’s criminal record was not checked, or that he used a false name.
When he was tried in France, the court heard that, as well as “Pasha”, he used several aliases – so many, prosecutors said, that he would write his assumed name inside his baseball cap to remember who he was supposed to be.
‘This city is ours’
We narrowed the search for Jamal with several sources – one of them arranged a call with Jamal under a false pretext and recorded their conversation.
Jamal said he was now based in Leicester, and boasted: “We know everyone in this city, this city is ours.”
He was making “good money”, he continued, and told our contact there was work to be had “moving cigarettes” from a warehouse.
Jamal also admitted driving a car without a licence, but said he was not worried about being investigated or caught.
“No-one touches us here,” he said. “Even the police won’t stop you.”
From this information, we searched for companies in the Leicester area that might be linked to Jamal, and found two mini-marts in Blaby – a village of about 6,000 people on the outskirts of the city.
The mini-marts, both named Candy Corner, are metres away from each other on opposite sides of the high street (by chance, one of them also stands next door to the constituency office of the local Conservative MP).
Over several days last month, we watched comings and goings at the brightly coloured stores, which sell vapes and sweets until late in the evening.
We had a photo from Jamal’s 2016 court appearance in France, which showed him flanked by police and wearing a weightlifter’s vest.
Before long, we saw someone who looked identical, now dressed very smartly in jeans and what appeared to be a cashmere coat.
To confirm it was Jamal, we made an undercover visit to one of the shops where he was staffing the till, and started a conversation.
He introduced himself as “Sultan”, and we noticed he had a tattoo on the back of one hand, which matched one seen on Jamal’s social media (where he calls himself Sultan Pasha).
If he was claiming asylum he should have been neither working nor driving, but we watched him doing both over several days.
‘I don’t care’
Finally, we confronted Jamal at one of the mini-marts, as he swept the pavement outside.
He told us he had never had any involvement in people smuggling and had not been jailed in France. Jamal claimed to have been in the UK since 2009.
When we produced the picture of him in a French courtroom in 2016, he did not deny it was him. However, when we put it to him that it was proof he had been arrested, he replied: “I don’t care.”
Jamal also denied he was working at the mini-mart where we now stood, even though we had seen him behind the till, as well as moving stock in and out of the store.
He refused to tell us his name, although he said the Home Office and immigration service knew it.
When we asked him why he was driving in a car without a valid licence, Jamal’s response was simply: “So what? Did I hit you?”
Sufficient checks?
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%.
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