I went inside French camp full of migrants about to head to UK – 1 thing made my jaw drop
Express Investigations Editor Zak Garner-Purkis was left shocked at what he saw at a migrant camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk.
A team from the Daily Express recently visited a migrant camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk and were left stunned by what they saw. They confronted people smugglers who were caught on camera promising to take them to Britain by small boat.
Speaking on the Daily Expresso podcast, Investigations Editor Zak Garner-Purkis, who organised for a contact to pose as a migrant seeking to travel illegally to the UK, discussed what they saw at the camp with podcast host JJ Anisiobi, which included open drug dealing.
Speaking about his time in the migrant camp, Zak said: “Get this JJ… after we’d put in the reporter undercover, me and my colleague, the producer, we went in to confront people selling lifejackets and people selling drugs [to] see whether we could see the traffickers in there as well. They just sat there.
“I went to the guy, ‘you’re selling drugs’. And he pulled his like snoody thing up a bit and just goes ‘yes’ like that. Went up to the guy selling lifejackets and they just didn’t care.”
The Express team found that men, who were linked to a Kurdish gang organising crossings, were operating a market profiting from the migrants. Working from hastily erected stalls, they sold lifejackets that did not look suitable for crossing the English Channel, as well as cannabis.
The reporting team also found that deals to travel to the UK by small boats could be arranged within 20 minutes of arrival at the camp. This was despite the camp sitting in full view of French police officers.
Zak Garner-Purkis was shocked to see drugs and lifejackets being brazenly sold in the migrant camp (Image: Daily Expresso)
After spending some time at the camp, it became clear that they were not welcome and the Express team was pelted with rocks. The producer was also inches away from being struck by a mango while a full can of Coca-Cola was also hurled in their direction.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are determined to investigate and lock up vile people smugglers. The National Crime Agency has over 100 live investigations, and arrests, convictions and seizures up by nearly 50% this year.
“The Home Secretary’s landmark deal with France is also improving our joint efforts to put people smugglers behind bars that led to 480 smugglers arrested in 2025, while building on the over 42,000 migrants stopped from crossing the Channel since the election.”
