The real tragedy of asylum seekers

Just across the Channel, in the outskirts of Calais at Sangatte, is the notorious shelter for prospective illegal immigrants heading into Britain. Most nights, there are nearly 1,000 there. And most of them will make it. They're from Iran, Iraq, China, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and wherever either economic conditions, or war and repression, induce people to leave. But for the migrants, being hidden in a lorry to Dover is the last leg of long transcontinental journeys. Organised crime has stepped in to meet the demand for people smuggling, and it already had the necessary framework in place.

The people-smuggling racket relies on international networks. They start in the migrants' countries of origin, where huge sums are extracted for their tortuous journeys. The richest smuggling bosses are based in Third World countries. On the borders of the European Union, like in the chaos of former Yugoslavia, there are key couriers - local smugglers who "guide" them across borders. And in Europe there are the final fixers and contacts. Worldwide, the United Nations estimates the profits of people-smuggling at over £8 billion, more than those of drug-trafficking.

About 500,000 people a year are thought to be smuggled into the EU, and about a quarter of those end up in Britain. Most migrants are driven in. About a hundred a week are caught stowed away in lorries at Dover without passports. But they don't really mind being discovered. The smugglers have briefed them to ask for asylum, and once they're into our backlogged system, their chances of staying in Britain for years are good. The smugglers will have delivered. "Organised crime wouldn't be any good if it didn't look to corrupt officials," says David Wilson of the Immigration Service. In places like the Balkans, British officials think corruption goes much higher than petty officials like border guards.

The smugglers go on extorting money once migrants are here. They care little for their clients' safety and thousands have been arrested, injured or killed on their journeys.

Kumar, pictured right, had a management job in an electrical firm, but claims he was discriminated against because he is a Tamil. Suicide-bombings by Tamil Tigers in Colombo made him the target of threats from his colleagues. A cousin in London wrote that he could find a much better job in Britain. So he decided to emigrate.

As there is no legal primary immigration into the UK, Kumar went to a people smuggler. Western intelligence estimates that there are a thousand such agents in Colombo. He found one easily, known as Mr Sunni, who ran an electronics shop as a front.

Kumar was told he would travel to Moscow via Singapore, then on to Sarajevo in Bosnia - not needing a visa for any of those places. After that he would be escorted overland into Austria, or taken by boat at night from Albania to Italy. Once inside the EU there would be no passport checks until Dover. The smugglers would have taken Kumar's passport by then anyway, so if caught at the port or inside the UK he could not be deported.

Kumar seemed delighted with the plan. The bad news was the cost: £6,000 - 10 times his former annual salary. Kumar will sell some land his family owned and borrow the rest from relatives - hoping to pay it back once in a well-paid job in Britain. He seemed unperturbed that he might never make it, or get arrested.

Mr Sunni claims on camera that he has sent around 200 migrants to Europe, but says he is the front office for a large operation with high-level individuals involved. He denies being a criminal, saying he is doing migrants a favour. But the immigration officials are in no doubt about what really drives people smuggling: profits, big profits.

Ah Chen, right, comes from Fujian, the Chinese province that faces Taiwan. Fujian has always exported its young people to make their fortunes in rich Asian cities like Singapore, or in America, or increasingly in Britain. The 58 found dead in a lorry at Dover in June were Fujianese. Twenty of the dead had relatives here. So many have now turned up in Britain's Chinatowns looking for work that they are depressing wages.

They didn't tell that to Ah Chen in Fujian. There the Snakeheads use propaganda depicting a rosy life in the West. They show photographs of Chinese illegals here, who are actually working for derisory pay in sweatshops, looking happy and wealthy in borrowed suits.

The Snakeheads are probably the most ruthless of the smugglers. Ah Chen was charged £17,000 for his journey, and the deposit was raised by his family from a money lender. But during the journey, in former Yugoslavia and Germany, more and more money was demanded for bribes or expenses. These demands were accompanied by threats made to Ah Chen's family in Fujian. And the extortion didn't stop once Ah Chen reached Britain hidden in the back of a lorry.

Ah Chen says: "When we arrived here the Snakeheads came to fetch us. They demanded full payment within three days of arrival. If you couldn't pay, they would charge you extra and beat you up." Bob Packham of the National Crime Squad agrees: "There is extreme violence around the organisations that control the networks. "We see regular examples of violence, kidnapping, extortion - indeed people have been held kidnapped in this country while gangs demand people in the originating country come up with more money."

There may be hundreds of Ah Chens scattered around Britain. An illegal immigrant has hardly anyone to turn to; he or she is ripe for criminal exploitation.

They were flown to Istanbul and from there to Sarajevo, posing as holidaymakers to enter. From Sarajevo they were driven to the Croatian border. But Croatia is the first line of defence against illegal immigration into the EU: it requires visas. So the Iranian migrants had to be slipped into Croatia clandestinely.

The Bosnia-Croatia border is the Sava river, fast-flowing and nearly half a mile wide. Local smugglers were sub-contracted to get the immigrants, now a party of 20, across. They commandeered a leaky, old boat and forced the migrants to board at gunpoint; two of the smugglers also boarded. It was a stormy autumn night. Half way across the boat sank. "I couldn't see anyone else," Mojgan says. "Only my husband and his friend. They were holding each other. I was in the middle of the river. "He kept on calling out, saying, 'Mojgan, save yourself and go.' He didn't know how to swim, nor did his friend. They were holding each other. I didn't see them again."

Mojgan struggled to the Croatian bank. But her husband, her two children, and 11 other migrants died - adding to the thousands who have drowned, suffocated or frozen to death while in the hands of the people smugglers.

She says: "I don't know how I survived in the river that night. I don't know. I think it was God's will that some would die and some, like me, would survive. But I really wish I also had died with my husband and my kids, so I wouldn't have to go through these days."

After a few weeks stuck in Zagreb, the widowed Mojgan was smuggled into the European Union, where she now, illegally, remains - for the time being.

The People Smugglers is the subject of the Money Programme tonight at 7.30pm on BBC2. The producer is Charles Colville.