People smugglers operating on the migrant route from France to Britain are allegedly demanding sex from female passengers in exchange for cheaper crossings.
According to findings from a disturbing Telegraph investigation, some of the criminal traffickers running the crossings explicitly told migrants that sexual services would guarantee them a spot on a dinghy bound for the UK.
One terrified survivor, who spent two years on the migrant trail, said that the gangs ‘passed them around’ in camps before deciding who gets on board.
Sources describe a system in which women – some of them allegedly minors – are treated as commodities. In exchange for sex, smugglers made false promises of guaranteed passage across the Channel.
Entire groups are reportedly told they must acquiesce in order to secure a place.
The migrant women told reporters during the investigation that they were too scared to contact French police, despite being victims of an attack.
Some said they were plied with alcohol and drugs, while others claimed they were threatened with guns or violence in a bid to make them compliant.
One anonymous woman told the newspaper how she was sexually assaulted by an armed Kurdish smuggler while staying in Dunkirk before her crossing.
According to the findings from a disturbing Telegraph investigation , some of the criminal traffickers running the crossings explicitly told migrants that sexual services would guarantee them a spot on a dinghy bound for the UK
Pictured: Migrants try to board smugglers’ boats in an attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Gravelines, northern France on September 27, 2025
‘I left the tent to go to the bathroom. It was very dark. Then I noticed someone standing in the shadows… He had a gun,’ she said.
The victim went on to describe how the ma pointed the gun to her head and loaded it while attempting to grab her.
She was released from her attacker when another man interrupted and declared she was travelling with him.
‘These men are powerful, and reporting to the authorities is dangerous. Even in Britain, I feel they can harm me. I’m also worried about my family’s honour,’ she explained.
Another woman described the harrowing moment she witnessed a mother and her young daughter being taken to their tents by male smugglers as they brought them alcohol and kebabs.
She said the mother would then be lured away to another tent, leaving the younger girl alone with the remaining traffickers.
The women and girls are allegedly sold promises by different men, including: ‘I’ll take you to Britain myself,’ or ‘You’re safe with me,’ in an effort to persuade women to accept their sexual advances.
Disturbingly, smugglers are also said to use ‘delaying tactics’ to keep the women they believed they had under their control with them for longer periods of time.
The female victim stressed that many women do what they feel they must in order to survive in the camps.
And with so many single women, smugglers ar exploiting them constantly.
One woman recalled how a trafficker had offered her a drink in his tent before branding her a ‘special passenger’ who he promised to protect. He then suggested they have sex.
Smugglers themselves even revealed that some migrants were paying for their travel into the UK by swallowing packages of heroin and cocaine which they then hand over to deals upon their arrival in Britain.
The women and girls are allegedly sold promises by different men, including: ‘I’ll take you to Britain myself,’ or ‘You’re safe with me,’ in an effort to persuade women to accept their sexual advances. Pictured: A small boat arrives at Gravelines beach, August 9, 2025
According to one human trafficker, who spoke to The Telegraph, the drugs are then typically collected from migrants who have been placed in UK hotels run by the Home Office.
The scale of the problem is not known, but the new report suggests that at least some of the thousands of people travelling to the UK via the Channel are being used to create a new drug supply route.
Both the Home Office and the National Crime Agency have denied the issue is widespread.
A spokesperson for the Home Office told the Daily Mail: ‘We do not recognise these claims. This government is relentless in tackling the criminal gangs who put lives at risk.
‘Every migrant arriving illegally is subject to thorough security checks and searches to ensure no illicit drugs enter the UK.’
Campaigners warn this presents a new level of depravity in the smuggling trade.
Instead of simply charging fees, gangs appear to be using victims’ bodies as currency – a horrifying escalation in exploitation that places the most vulnerable at greater risk.
Officials have been urged to act fast to dismantle these criminal networks.
Claire Coutinho, shadow minister for women, told the newspaper: ‘These reports are horrifying.
‘No woman should be forced to ‘trade her dignity for safety’ at the hands of violent criminal gangs’.
