The findings of a year-long undercover investigation into a violent migrant-smuggling gang were published by BBC News on 5 August – and, as a result, one person has now been arrested in Birmingham.
Here, one of our reporters who assumed a false identity and posed as a migrant, describes how he met one of the gang’s senior members in a secret forest hideout.
I am walking towards the forest near Dunkirk, thinking about the battery in my pocket. I’ve hidden the wires under two T-shirts, but is anything still showing? Is my secret camera working? Is it pointing at the right angle? I have, at most, three hours of battery life left, and I need to get to the smuggler’s secret camp, meet him, and get out safely.
