In brief
Twana Jamal, nicknamed 'Pasha', served five years in a French prison for organising cross‑Channel smuggling that brought in up to £100,000 a week. The BBC traced him to Blaby, Leicestershire, where he works illegally and claims he is still awaiting asylum approval. His case underscores gaps in the UK’s border checks, especially after Brexit, and highlights 15 other convicted smugglers now residing in Britain under false identities.
Twana Jamal, an Iraqi Kurd who earned up to £100,000 a week smuggling migrants across the Channel, was given a five‑year jail sentence by French authorities in 2016. The case earned him the label "godfather of French migration camps" by the media.
According to the BBC, a tip‑off led investigators to Blaby in Leicestershire, where Jamal was spotted driving a BMW without a licence and working at a local convenience store. In conversations with reporters, he claimed he had applied for asylum and was still waiting for a decision.
The UK’s handling of asylum claims after Brexit raises serious concerns. Immigration officers say that, without existing data‑sharing agreements with many European countries, it is harder to check whether a claimant has a serious offence abroad. This system gap allows people like Jamal, whose convictions may be unknown to UK authorities, to remain in the country and work illegally.
Law enforcement in mainland Europe reports that 15 people smugglers convicted in France, Germany and Belgium are now living in the UK under false identities, a figure that could be higher than reported. They point to further cases, such as a man in Manchester selling used cars and a man in Blackpool boasting online of a granted leave to remain.
The Home Office notes that all asylum claimants undergo mandatory security checks to confirm identity and cross‑reference criminal records. However, the Criminal Records Disclosure system does not automatically pull overseas convictions, a limitation noted by immigration union representative Lucy Morton.
These incidents call into question whether the UK’s current asylum and immigration checks are robust enough to prevent convicted criminals from exploiting the system.
