Evil people smugglers using Sir Keir Starmer’s axing of Rwanda plan in TikTok ads for small boat crossings
EVIL people smugglers are using Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge that the Rwanda plan is “dead and buried” to advertise small boat crossings on TikTok.
Posts on the popular platform flogging £2,500 trips from Calais to Dover reference the ditched £300million asylum scheme – with one reassuring would-be migrants: “There is no chance of you being sent anywhere.”
A Sun on Sunday probe found a clip of the PM telling a press conference three days after he was elected — in response to a Sun on Sunday question — that the plan to send migrants abroad for processing would be scrapped.
The listing on TikTok told Somalians hoping to cross the channel from France there was “no chance” they could be sent back.
Writing in the Somali language, it said: “Rwanda scheme is done.
“There is no chance of a client being sent anywhere.
“You will be in the UK if you travel with us.”
The post, which was deleted after we reported it to TikTok, went on: “The new leader said migrants should not go to Rwanda if they enter the UK.
“You will be 100% safe if you use our service.
“We are the safest.”
Vile smuggler kingpins commonly use TikTok as videos reach thousands of wannabe Channel hoppers from more than 30 countries staying in Calais.
A bill announced in his King’s Speech last Wednesday included provisions to criminalise people smugglers who use social media adverts to sell spots on UK-bound boats.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also launched the Border Security Command, with a UK vessel towing migrants back to Calais for the first time last week.
Experts fear it will not stem the record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel, with 15,000 making the dangerous trip since January.
Sir Keir previously blasted the £300million Rwanda plan as a “gimmick”, adding: “Look at the numbers that have come over in the first six-and-a-bit months of this year.”
Asked if the scheme was a deterrent he insisted: “It’s had the complete opposite effect.”
Last night former minister Alec Shelbrooke blasted scrapping the Rwanda policy as “a gift to the people-smugglers”.
He added: “Labour are going to learn pretty quickly that spouting off in opposition about these issues is very different from having to govern.
“A lot of these phrases like ‘smash the gangs’ will appeal to the left-wing, but that was already happening.
“They’ve made a gift to the people-smugglers – it’s given them a free hand to exploit more vulnerable people.”
A Labour Party spokeswoman insisted: “The Tories have broken our asylum system and let criminal smuggling gangs take hold along our borders.
“The Rwanda scheme was never a deterrent, as demonstrated by the record numbers crossing the Channel at the start of this year.
“Labour’s new Border Security Command will relentlessly pursue criminal gangs upstream, targeting their tactics and supply chains, with new counter-terror-style powers”.
The Home Office declined to comment.