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  "path": "/news/migrant-crisis-people-smuggler-godfather-of-french-migrant-camps-asylum-seeker",
  "publishedAt": "2026-07-02T10:34:16.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "Shropshire residents fear for their safety as almost 100 asylum seekers set to move into new-builds",
    "I visited the 'Migrant Street' in Stoke Heath. What I saw was sinister – Alex Armstrong",
    "Shabana Mahmood bans asylum seekers from being housed near schools and nurseries",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nA convicted people smuggler who was described as \"the Godfather\" of French migrant camps is now seeking asylum in the UK.\n\nTwana Jamal, 46, has been tracked down in the Leicestershire village of Blaby, where he was working illegally under a fake name.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nBack in 2016, French authorities imprisoned Twana Jamal, 46, for five years when he was labelled one of the most prolific people smugglers.\n\nNow, Jamal, tracked down by the BBC, is leading a double life under a fake name in the UK.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nLawyers said the Iraqi Kurd was pocketing £100,000-a-week ferrying hundreds of migrants from northern France to British shores via illegal routes.\n\nCharging migrants somewhere between £4,500 and £5,000, Jamal organised ways for migrants to sneak into the UK from 2012 until 2016.\n\nJamal seems to have slipped through the border control system to gain entry into the UK, where he is now running a mini-mart business with one shop on a Leicester high street.\n\nIn normal circumstances, anyone imprisoned for longer than a year abroad would be denied entry into Britain.\n\nAsylum seekers have their fingerprints taken when arriving in the UK. However, while the prints are checked against police databases in Britain, convictions from other nations do not appear.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nOfficers blamed Brexit for making it harder for authorities to check criminal records from people in other countries.\n\n\"If we were able to share databases, even if just with our nearest neighbours, with Germany, with Belgium, with Holland and France, say - then, yes, we'd know that they had a conviction for people smuggling,\" Lucy Moreton, an officer at the Immigration Services Union said.\n\nShadow Home Secretary Chris Philp ripped into the \"shocking\" discovery this morning.\n\nHe told GB News: \"It is shocking that a convicted people smuggler managed to enter the UK illegally and is now running a business and claiming asylum. These people are laughing at us.\n\n### BRITAIN'S BORDERS CRISIS - READ MORE:\n\n\n\n\n  * Shropshire residents fear for their safety as almost 100 asylum seekers set to move into new-builds\n  * I visited the 'Migrant Street' in Stoke Heath. What I saw was sinister – Alex Armstrong\n  * Shabana Mahmood bans asylum seekers from being housed near schools and nurseries\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\"Illegal immigrants must never be allowed to claim asylum. This is why we need to leave the ECHR so these people can be rapidly deported without a court process and without claiming asylum.\n\n\"It is a shame the Labour Government are too weak to do this.\"\n\nJamal admitted that he was driving without a licence and, when approached by a BBC journalist undercover, boasting \"this city is ours\" as he revealed he was claiming asylum there.\n\n\"No one touches us here. Even the police won't stop you,\" the man, who claimed to make \"good money\" gloated.\n\nJamal's previous criminal activity was connected to a group of Kurdish people-smuggling gangs for more than 15 years.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nHowever, the asylum seeker insisted he had been living in the UK since 2009.\n\nFrench lawyers said that, as a people smuggler, he had so many aliases that he woul often write his name on the inside of a baseball cap to jog his memory.\n\nWhen confronted by the broadcaster, he denied any involvement in people-smuggling gangs and resisted claims that he had been jailed.\n\nA Home Office spokesman said: \"All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to confirm their identity for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks.\"\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Labour told to make rapid deportation as 'Godfather of smugglers' claims asylum in UK after boasting ‘this city is ours’"
}