BBC journalist tracked down Barzan Majeed, a notorious people-smuggler

 

BBC journalist Sue Mitchell and aid worker Rob Lawrie embarked on a perilous journey to track down Barzan Majeed, a notorious people-smuggler known as Scorpion. Wanted by police forces in several countries, including the UK, Majeed has been linked to the deaths of over 70 migrants who attempted to cross the English Channel. Despite being sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined €968,000 in absentia, Majeed remained at large.

The investigation began with a chance encounter with a young girl who had almost died attempting to cross the Channel in an inflatable dinghy. The dinghy was not seaworthy, and the 19 people on board had no life jackets. This raised questions about who would send people out to sea in such conditions.

Police in the UK discovered a common phone number stored under the name "Scorpion" or a picture of a scorpion on the mobile phones of illegal migrants. This led them to Barzan Majeed, a Kurdish Iraqi man who had been deported from the UK in 2015. Majeed had inherited a people-smuggling business from his elder brother and became known as Scorpion.

Between 2016 and 2021, Scorpion's gang controlled much of the people-smuggling trade between Europe and the UK. A two-year international police operation resulted in convictions for 26 members of the gang, but Scorpion himself evaded arrest and went on the run.

Mitchell and Lawrie's search for Scorpion took them to Turkey, where they received a tip-off about his whereabouts. They eventually made contact with him, and he agreed to meet them in a shopping mall in Iraq. Over the course of two conversations, Scorpion claimed he did not know how many migrants he had transported across the English Channel, possibly thousands. He denied being a smuggler, defining it as someone who physically carries out the task, rather than someone pulling the strings.

Scorpion showed little sympathy for drowned migrants, saying it was their fault for getting on the boats. He claimed to be just the "money man," but his actions suggested otherwise. He was seen at a money exchange office, and his phone revealed lists of passport numbers, indicating his continued involvement in people-smuggling.

The authorities in the UK and Europe have been informed of the discoveries, and public prosecutor Ann Lukowiak hopes that Scorpion will eventually be extradited from Iraq and brought to justice. The search for Scorpion highlights the dangerous and lucrative people-smuggling trade, which puts migrants' lives at risk for profit.