Illegal immigrants smuggled out of UK and then back to avoid deportation

Legal loophole in British laws means illegal immigrants won't be deported to country of origin if caught

LONDON: One would imagine that illegal immigrants would be doing everything they can to get into the United Kingdom. But as authorities crack down on them, some are paying traffickers to smuggle them out of Britain before being smuggled back in to avoid being deported to their original countries.

The key in this, however, is to exploit a legal loophole in British laws. If the immigrant is first registered as an asylum seeker in a country like Italy, they would not be deported to their country of origin in the event they are caught in the UK. Rather, they will be sent to Italy to process their asylum cases.

To prove this, an undercover journalist had himself smuggled out of Britain for as little as £300, to human traffickers in Walthamstow, London.

The journalist was transported in a truck along with seven other illegal immigrants to Detling, Kent. There they changed vehicles to a lorry which had 14 more illegal immigrants from Birmingham and Manchester, drove to Dover port.

Having easily evaded detection from Kent police, British and French immigration, the immigrants, waited for the early morning Dunkirk ferry.

The journey for the immigrants, mostly from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, finally ended at Veurne, Belgium.

From there, some of the immigrants chose to take off to other European destinations, or Italy, where they could seek asylum.

Others, like the journalist, were told they could make their way back into the UK for a modest fee of £1,200.

This article originally appeared on the BBC