ONE people-smuggling gang alone has shipped more migrants to France from the UK than Sir Keir Starmer.
Crook Madjid Belabes, 53, worked with a crew of Algerian drivers to sneak them out of Britain on the back of lorries.
They managed to send an estimated 243 people across the Channel in less than a year — almost 100 more than the 153 returned to France under Labour’s “one-in, one-out” deal.
The gang smuggled people out on 26 occasions between December 2022 and September 2023.
In one incident, 58 Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian nationals were caught in France.
They had all been in the UK legally on visitor visas.
Former Border Force boss Tony Smith said many North Africans come here as a route to France after being denied a Schengen visa.
Uber Eats driver Belabes, of Camberwell, South London, charged £1,200 on average and made £287,000 in the process.
He pleaded guilty to people smuggling at Kingston crown court on Friday and was jailed for ten years and nine months.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Even people smugglers are better at removing people from the UK than Keir Starmer.
“His laughable deal has seen barely more than 100 removed while over 15,000 have crossed the Channel since it was announced.
“Letting over 99 per cent of illegal immigrants stay is no deterrent at all.”
Robert Bates, at the Centre for Migration Control, said: “It sums up the state of our borders that criminal gangs are doing a better job than the Home Office.”
Epping Forest District Council cannot challenge a ruling to allow the Bell Hotel to house asylum seekers, the Supreme Court has ruled.
