People smuggling kingpin charged wealthy migrants £1.5k each to escape the UK

An Algerian national who masterminded a “reverse” people smuggling operation to France from the UK has been jailed for 11 years. Majid Belabes, 53, acquired British citizenship over two decades ago and was living in a council-owned flat on the top floor of a multi-million-pound townhouse in Camberwell, south London, when he devised the scheme. It centred around charging migrants up to £1,500 each to travel under-the-radar across the Channel, in a trend fuelled by France‘s restrictions on visas granted to citizens of countries including Morocco and Tunisia.

Instead of making the perilous journey from Calais to Dover in small boats, migrants flew to the UK on legitimate tourist visas before being covertly transported to France, often by north African gangs based in London, The Times reports. The National Crime Agency (NCA) believes that Belabes attempted to smuggle over 240 migrants to France over a 10-year period, first using corrupt taxi drivers to convey people from London to locations near Dover, then transferring them into lorries bound for Calais.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced a clampdown on French visas available to citizens of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in 2021, in response to authorities in the three countries refusing to take back their own migrants after they were thrown out of France.

Data from the Home Office shows a parallel spike of tourist visas from Algeria and Morocco to Britain in the same period – with the former more than doubling between 2019 and 2023 and the latter rising from 23,892 to 34,783.

While many of the applications were rejected, enterprising criminals such as Belabes sensed an opportunity to make easy cash, with the 53-year-old launching a string of at least 26 smuggling operations between December 2022 and September 2023, according to reports.

Belabes, who was married with four children but unemployed when he began overseeing the illegal scheme, was arrested after raid on his home by the NCA in November 2024. He and six associates were convicted of people smuggling offences last summer, after trying to argue that they were “simply doing the government’s job for them” by shipping migrants out of the country. Belabes was jailed for ten years and nine months.

John Turner, senior investigating officer at the NCA, said: “We know the gangs and drivers involved in smuggling migrants out of the UK are often involved in smuggling into the UK, too.

“Like Majid Belabes, their only concern is making money. Belabes didn’t care about the potentially fatal dangers facing migrants hidden in lorry trailers.

“Tackling organised immigration crime is a key priority for the NCA, and alongside our international law enforcement partners, we are relentless in our efforts to dismantle these networks wherever they operate.”

Ricky Crellin, a British lorry driver who discovered an HGV full of migrants after the ferry he was on docked at Calais, was struck by the “middle-class people” he found packed into the vehicle.

“There was a 50-50 split of men and women,” he said. “I knew this was something different because they were all well spoken and dressed in nice clothes.”

While Belabes’ arrest put a pin in the operation he had been running, other criminal gang networks have similarly taken advantage of the demand for “reverse” illegal travel, the 60-year-old driver said.

“I met a family of four Moroccans who told me they had started their journey in Manchester before being taken down to London,” he said. “It was quite a rough crossing that day, so I think many of the migrants had started to panic in the lorry. They didn’t have a clue where we were when they got out. Some thought they were still in Britain.”

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “People smuggling is an abhorrent crime that puts lives at risk. We will continue to ensure evil smugglers, such as Majid Belabes, face the full force of the law.”