Children as young as five were smuggled to France in refrigerated lorries by a London-based gang in a rare example of a reverse illegal Channel crossing. Investigators believe the gang carried out 20 runs between February and October 2023 – the equivalent of more than two a month. Migrant-smuggling from the UK to France is unusual but demonstrates the lengths to which gangs are going to profit from it in whichever direction. Last year, 93 migrants were arrested for crossing illegally from the