Small boats traded by Channel smugglers in German city of Essen

A €15,000 package deal for a dinghy, engine and 60 life jackets was offered to our reporter in Essen.

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This is the “good price” offered by two small-boat smugglers to an undercover BBC journalist in Essen - a western German city where many migrants live or pass through.

A five-month-long BBC investigation has exposed the significant German connection to the lethal human smuggling trade across the English Channel.

As the new UK government promises to “smash the gangs”, Germany has become a central location for the storage of boats and engines eventually used in Channel crossings - confirmed to the BBC by Britain’s National Crime Agency.

During covert filming, smugglers revealed to us that they store boats in multiple secret warehouses - as they play cat-and-mouse games with German police.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6q6wz765eo

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