Smuggling gangs are using more than 200 websites to advertise for migrants who they charge up to £13,500 for a route into UK

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Migrants desperate to reach the UK are paying social media smugglers £13,500 per head so they can covertly enter Britain via quiet ports on the south and east coast.

The criminal gangs, who help bring migrants to Britain by sea or air, are advertising their five-figure services on more than 200 websites, including the likes of Facebook and Twitter and many of the successful migrants have now become naturalised British citizens.

They charge migrants up to £13,500 to arrange flights and false documents while a crossing over the Channel in inflatable boats can come up at around £12,000.

The National Crime Agency - the UK's equivalent to the FBI - also revealed that criminal networks are now targeting quieter ports such as Hull and Portsmouth, as well as the key hotspot at Kent, in a bid to covertly smuggle migrants into the country.

The criminal gangs, who help bring migrants to Britain by sea or air, are advertising their five-figure services on more than 200 websites

Migrants trying to reach the UK are paying smugglers up to £13,500 to arrange their journey into quiet ports on the south and east coast, it has emerged. Pictured: a migrant stands on a gate at the Macedonian border

They said the cost of journeys varies hugely, depending on whether the migrant wants a staged or 'end to end' trip. The migrants will also pay for what smugglers deem as the level of risk.

Tom Dowdall, deputy director of the NCA's border policing command, said someone wishing to travel from Iraq to the UK could pay just under £4,000 to go over land through Turkey and Europe.

But he said the price jumps to more than £13,500 for a journey by air. 

Referring to the more expensive example, Mr Dowdall said: 'That's someone who has been able to access a good quality travel document in the first instance to be able to cross borders and to be able to fool airlines as well.'

Asked how frequent such activity is, he said: 'There is a regularity to that.'

He added: ‘In addressing social media recruitment, the taskforce has analysed over 200 social media sites to help secure evidence for potential prosecutions or to disrupt criminal activity.

THE PEOPLE SMUGGLER WHO MADE £7 MILLION FROM HIS UK HOSTEL

Jamal Owda, who claims to be Palestinian, was arrested in a dawn raid for his involvement in a trafficking ring making at least £7 million last year.

He is suspected of smuggling desperate migrants from the Balkans into EU countries - including the UK where he was tracked down after arriving here nearly two years ago.

The gang, who used social media and online forums to run the operation, also supplied housing and forged travel documents. 

Authorities are trying to extradite the 26-year-old to Greece, where he faces 20 years in jail for smuggling refugees and migrants into Europe.

The flush smuggler was caught with £17,500 stashed in a speaker in the room he was staying in at a hostel for asylum seekers in Liverpool when he was detained by the NCA.

Arrested: Jamal Owda, 26, is thought to be the head of a £7 million smuggling ring that brought hundreds of migrants into the EU on boats from Turkey and Syria to Greece

Investigators believe his criminal network was responsible for more than 100 people entering southern Europe every day for at least 16 months – the equivalent of nearly 50,000 migrants. Each person was charged about £1,000.

National Crime Agency officers, tipped off by Greek police, tracked Owda down to an asylum centre near Sefton Park, south Liverpool. He had been living in the publicly funded hostel, which is in an affluent area popular with young professionals, for several months.

As Owda was arrested, another 22 suspected gang members, the majority of whom are Greek and Syrian, were held in raids in Greece, Austria and Sweden.

The gang smuggled migrants, most of them Syrians arriving from Turkey, through Greece and to northern Europe via Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria.

The majority of the network’s members are Greek nationals whose work was co-ordinated by an Albanian working in close co-operation with Owda.  

‘We are also working to build a capacity to disrupt social media recruiting in source and transit countries.’

Mr Dowdall said the smugglers were changing their routes and methods every day to avoid detection. He said: ‘We are aware of use of air travel where migrants are able to pay. At each stage they use false documents, forged passports and ID cards.

The cost and sophistication of efforts to smuggle migrants into Britain from France also varies considerably.

Prices can range from as little as just over £100 for a single, basic attempt to more than £6,000 for a journey in a 'high-quality concealment'.

Intelligence even suggests that some migrants have paid up to £12,000 for transport from Dunkirk to the UK in Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boats.

Those intent on coming to Britain are paying criminal gangs five-figure sums to make the trip by air, while others are spending as much as £12,000 to travel across the Channel in inflatable boats (file picture)

Some migrants have paid up to £12,000 for transport from Dunkirk to the UK in Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boats. Pictured: A rubber dinghy of refugees and migrants is towed by a Turkish Coast Guard back to land

The criminal networks are seen as adaptable, quickly changing their methods in response to law enforcement action or increased security.

Investigators suspect that, as well as the main Channel crossing between Calais and Kent, criminals may be using less busy ports within the UK.

'We've seen on the east coast evidence from Tilbury and Purfleet, up as far as Hull and Immingham. And on the south coast from Newhaven to Portsmouth,' Mr Dowdall said.

The NCA provided examples of recently detected 'concealments'.

One migrant found in a tanker at Dartford Crossing had travelled from Iran to Calais via Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria, Switzerland and, once in France, Paris and Lille.

He had paid around 4,000 US dollars (£2,800 at current rates) to various 'agents', with the journey to the UK costing an additional 1,000 euro (£800).

In another episode, six men found on a freight train near Folkestone reported that they had paid 500 euro (£399) to get on at Calais, where they were sealed in containers.

Desperate: Migrants and refugees at Calais clash with French police who try to stop them from crossing into the UK via the Eurotunnel. The NCA said only a handful of arrests have been made so far

The NCA's 90-officer taskforce - codenamed Project Invigor - has up to 60 open lines of enquiry into organised crime gangs at any one time.

Groups involved are often formed along national or community lines, including those from the Middle East, China and various Eastern European countries. British-based groups are often comprised of naturalised UK citizens.

Smugglers find their 'customers' through word of mouth recommendations, at transit hubs and through advertising on social media, the NCA said.

Investigators who interviewed stowaways caught trying to get into Britain on lorries and tankers found that someone wishing to travel from Iraq to the UK could pay just under £4,000 to go overland through Turkey and Europe. 

Pictured: Two migrants are pictured clinging to a freight truck in Folkestone

The price depends on the weather, with some criminals offering cut-price £80 deals for dangerous sea crossings in bad weather from Turkey to Greece.

One man paid £3,000 to travel from Iran to Calais via Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria and Switzerland before forking out another £800 to hop into a tanker at Calais bound for Dartford where he was eventually caught.

In another episode, six men found on a freight train near Folkestone reported that they had paid £399 to get on at Calais, where they were sealed inside containers.

No official figures for the number of illegal crossings attempted are available, but NCA investigators say they have up to 60 lines of inquiry into crime gangs at any one time. 

Ian Cruxton, director of the National Crime Agency’s organised crime command, said: ‘We are probably doing more than any other country to tackle organised immigration crime.’

But he admitted yesterday that the agency is hampered in its efforts to bring the culprits to justice by differing European laws which mean it might not be unlawful to transport people in other countries.