2024-05-10 10:37:07
Published10. May 2024, 12:37
Barzan Majeed“Scorpion”: This is Europe’s most wanted people smuggler
A BBC journalist and an ex-soldier went looking for the leader of a people smuggling gang and found him in Iraq.
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A BBC journalist and an ex-soldier set out to find the suspected leader of a people smuggling gang.
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The research took her from France via Turkey to Iraq.
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There they met “Scorpion” and talked to him regarding his work.
He doesn’t know how many migrants he transported across the English Channel. “Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count.” Barzan Majeed is wanted in several countries for people smuggling. For several years, his gang controlled a large part of the people smuggling across the English Channel in boats and trucks.
BBC journalist Sue Mitchell and a former soldier, Rob Lawrie, embarked on a months-long search for the smuggler that took them from France to Turkey until they finally found him in Iraq.
They call him “Scorpion”
The first clue in their research was a phone number. British police search the cell phones of illegal immigrants they intercept. Since 2016, a certain number has appeared on these cell phones once more and once more, which was saved under the name “Scorpion” or with a picture of a scorpion. The National Crime Agency has already discovered that the nickname belongs to a Kurdish Iraqi named Barzan Majeed.
Majeed was smuggled into England in a truck in 2006 as a 20-year-old. Although he was refused residency a year later, he remained in the UK for several more years – some of them in prison for weapons and drugs offences.
He was finally deported to Iraq in 2015. During this period, Majeed is said to have taken over his older brother’s people smuggling business while he was serving a prison sentence in Belgium. From then until 2021, the Scorpion gang is said to have controlled the majority of human smuggling between Europe and the United Kingdom.
The first lead led to Turkey
Turkey is an important stopover for most migrants heading to the UK. Their immigration laws make it relatively easy to obtain a visa to enter from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Tips from contacts, as well as from Scorpion’s brother in Belgium, led the journalist and the ex-military man to a café in Istanbul that is frequented by people smugglers.
The first inquiries did not go smoothly. The question of human smuggling was met with silence and threats. Ultimately they managed to get some information. They left their telephone numbers at a money exchange office where “Scorpion” is said to have recently exchanged 200,000 euros.
On “Scorpion’s” trail
The next night “Scorpion” called. “I heard you’re looking for me,” he said. The connection kept dropping out and despite her thoughtful inquiries he gave no indication of his location.
The research put the journalist and the ex-military on a trail that said that “Scorpion” was now involved in smuggling from Turkey to Greece. From this trail they found a villa on Marmaris that was said to belong to “Scorpion”.
By asking around, they got a tip that he was staying in Iraq. Once they confirmed this with a second contact, they headed there. That’s where they met him, in a shopping center in the city of Sulaymaniyah.
A conversation with the people smuggler
At the meeting he denied being a key player at the head of a criminal organization. According to him, he is a victim of unjustified accusations from other gang members. “Some people who are arrested say: ‘We’re working for him’ to get a lesser sentence,” he said, denying the allegations.
When they asked him regarding his responsibility for the deaths of migrants, he repeated what he had already said in a telephone conversation – he had only taken the money and booked places. For him, a smuggler was someone who loaded people onto boats and trucks and transported them. “I don’t put anyone in a boat and I don’t kill anyone,” he defended himself.
He also denied that he was still involved in people smuggling, but his actions on the two days they were allowed to accompany him seemed to contradict that.
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