Downing Street 'shocked' by report of convicted people smuggler living in UK

Downing Street has said it shares “the public’s shock” at a report that a convicted people smuggler is living in Britain and is urgently looking into the circumstances.

The man, once labelled “the godfather” of the Calais migrant camps, was tracked down by the BBC to Leicestershire, where he reportedly changed his name from Twana Jamal and was working illegally while attempting to claim asylum.

It is understood he received a five-year jail sentence in 2019 in France, where prosecutors said he had earned up to £100,000 a week for moving people across the Channel.

The case is one of two that led to questions being asked on Thursday about whether Britain’s systems allowed for the deportation of foreign criminals after it emerged that a legal loophole meant that the leader of a grooming gang in Rochdale could not be deported after his release from prison.

A No 10 spokesperson told reporters: “I’m limited in what I can say on an individual case. But we share the public’s shock at these reports and we are working urgently to establish the facts.

“We will not tolerate abuse of our immigration system, and that is why we are deporting people with no right to be here at the highest rate in nearly a decade.”

Chris Philp, the Conservative shadow home secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This shines a light on a system that is not working. People are entering our country illegally in large numbers, and we really don’t know who many of them are. The man who was tracked down in Leicestershire should be arrested by the police for illegal working while the authorities should render any claims by him as null and void.”

Philp claimed that under a Conservative government the man would be deported. “However, if we try and do that it is likely he will make a human rights claim,” he added.

Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, said the Home Office had been in touch with the BBC and wanted “the evidence necessary in order to take action”.

She told the BBC: “I am not sure that has fully happened but I am sure that is what the Home Office would want to see happen.”

The BBC reported that it had found more than 20 active smugglers who had reached the UK, and that immigration officers said it had become more difficult to check criminal records from some other countries since the UK had left the EU.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Despite repeated requests for verification, the BBC failed to provide evidence capable of substantiating the claims in this report.

“All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to confirm their identity for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks. We also have a number of agreements with countries which enable the sharing of criminal record information.

“Immigration enforcement action is at the highest level in British history, with illegal working arrests up by 83% and raids up by 77%.”

It emerged on Tuesday that the survivors of the ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang had been told he was due to be released from prison this week and could not be deported.

Shabir Ahmed, 73, known to his victims as “Daddy”, was convicted of multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls in 2012.

Ahmed had dual British-Pakistani citizenship and was stripped of his British citizenship after his conviction, but documents published online, apparently sent by the Probation Service to one of his victims, say he cannot be deported to Pakistan due to provisions in the Immigration Act 1971.