Intrigue

While Sue Mitchell and Rob Lawrie do impressive and tenacious work to track down the key people smuggler Majeed and his network, the series never addresses the underlying reason why such criminals are able to exploit so many desperate people; UK government policy UK gov figures show that at least 75% of those coming to the UK by irregular means (mostly be small boats), are ultimately found to be genuine asylum seekers. 20 years ago, the number of asylum seekers coming to the UK was significantly higher, but they didn’t come by illegal or dangerous means; they applied through legal means of claiming asylum. Those legal avenues have been removed. This means it’s impossible to claim asylum until you are physically in the UK; an absurd and cynical catch-22 situation. The consequence is creating opportunities for criminals such as Majeed to exploit the most desperate people, and smuggle them into the UK (and elsewhere). Any examination of the problem of people smuggling is incomplete without some acknowledgment of the role UK gov policy plays in effectively enabling opportunities for criminal trafficking activity. As a side note; a relatively tiny number of the global total of irregular migrants (including largely asylum seekers) head to the UK. Those that do are predominantly driven by two factors; they have English language skills, or they have family members already in the UK.