As e dey waka, freely, across one public square, e be like say di smuggler no sabi say pesin dey follow am.
E be one short, thick, 39-year-old wey wear one pale green shell suit and baseball cap – one figure wey pesin fit no look – dey take afternoon stroll from one tent migrant reception centre to a nearby tram station.
Our team bin begin run.
“We sabi who you be,” I tok, as we catch up wit am halfway across di square for Luxembourg capital city.
“You be smuggler.”
Na one confrontation wey mark di high point of one BBC investigation wey bin start 51 days earlier – hours afta five pipo, including one seven-year-old girl Sara, die for di sea off northern France. She bin choke under a crush of bodies inside one rubber boat.
Dat investigation bin take us from di informal migrant camps around Calais and Boulogne, to one French police unit for Lille, one market town for Essex, to di Belgian port of Antwerp, Berlin, and finally to Luxembourg and three-day stakeout for di gates of di kontri migrant reception centre.
Di man now wey face us – with im eyes narrowed, shoulders and hands raised – we sabi for sure, na di smuggler wey dem bin pay to organise Sara and her family dangerous journey to England.
Dis na di tori of how we track am down.
“I swear no be me,” di smuggler bin declare, repeat am, as e move back towards one nearby tram station for di side of Luxembourg European Court of Justice.
But we don already see im Iraqi passport and one Italian ID card. Small time afta we begin confront am, one final piece of di jigsaw fall in place, wen im phone begin ring for im pocket.
At first, e bin ignore am, but wen e finally pull am out and we see di incoming call number for im screen, we get conclusive proof of im guilt.
Why? sake of say na we dey call am.
For di weeks bifor, one member of our BBC team bin don act as migrant wey dey try cross di Channel to England. Afta e reach out to some alleged middlemen wey dey work within di smuggler wider network, our colleague, “Mahmoud”, bin finally dey in direct contact with am.
We come record for secret some phone toks wit di smuggler – speak to am on di same phone wey e dey hold now im hand. For those calls, e bin confam im identity and tell us say e still dey di smuggling business.
For money, e bin tok say e fit offer us “one easy journey” wit “extra guards, wey all go carry weapons “for di next small boat wey dey leave for northern France. Di current price na €1,500 (£1,269) per person.
As we tanda bifor am now, we fit see our telephone number, clearly, on im phone screen.
We don find our man.
Our investigation bin shele sake of one desperate incident wey happun for di French coast for 23 April.
We bin dey wait, overnight, for one beach outside di resort town of Wimereux – one place wey we sabi as a favorite launch site.
We bin don film as one group of French police bin try to stop one boat, clash violently wit two groups of smugglers and dia passengers.
Di police bin no stop dem from boarding and we watch di kasala as di two separate passenger groups bin battle for space on di dangerously overcrowded inflatable. Smugglers dey always pack more dan 60 pipo on those kind boats, but dis one get more dan 100.
One small girl wey wear pink jacket – wey we later sabi as Sara – show briefly ontop her papa shoulders.
Minutes later, some dozen metres from di shore, she and four odas don die.
French rescuers bin take some survivors, and di bodies of di dead, back to shore – but di boat, wit dozens of pipo still onboard, las-las on to England.
Na di second fatal small boat incident of di year near Wimereux. We now don report both.
For di days wey follow, we bin find Sara family and speak to her papa Ahmed about im grief, about di guilt wey e and im wife feel say dem put dia three children for dat kind risk, and about di fear of possible deportation from Europe wey bin make dem try cross to di UK.
Afta dem run from Iraq 14 years earlier, Ahmed asylum claim for Belgium don repeatedly dey rejected on grounds say im hometown of Basra now don dey classified as safe area. Recently, dem bin warn am say e fit dey deported from Belgium within days. Im children – all born for Europe – bin grow up wit relatives for Sweden, but also just get final order to leave di kontri.
But we also wan dig deeper, to find di main criminal gangs wey dey responsible for dat boat, and to understand how dem fit into one larger, lucrative network wey continue to dey move tens of thousands of migrants towards one small stretch of French coastline.
For 18 June, 15 small boats bin bring 882 pipo across di Channel – one record for one single day dis year, wey help make di total number wey reach UK so far dis year over 12,000.
Following Sara death, British police soon announce say dem don detain two suspected smugglers wey now dey wait extradition to France. But dis be young men, wey allegedly dey work on di boat itself. No be di powerful bosses in charge for back.
We bin set out to find and tok to as many survivors from dat April night as possible, we meet some for informal migrant camps or hostels for asylum seekers near di coast for France. Most of dem say make we no use dia names, sake of say some dey plan to make further attempts to cross di Channel.
One young Kuwaiti man, wey bin dey next to Sara as she die and don phone di French police to ask for help, successfully make am to di UK few weeks later. We track am down to Essex.
Many of di dozens of pipo wey bin dey di boat wit Sara and her family sabi nothing about those in charge of di operation. Dem only don tok to junior middlemen wey often dey-dey outside di train stations for Calais or Boulogne, dey find potential clients.
Once price dey agreed – and afta much pricing – most pipo den dey go on to deposit funds electronically wit intermediaries. Dem bin tell us say e usually be trusted businessmen, wey sometimes dey operate from barber shops or grocery stores for places like Turkey, Paris or London. Di middlemen go den pass di moni on to di smuggling gang immediately afta successful crossing.
But three pipo – including two wey bin dey di same boat as Sara – tell us say di smuggling gang wey dem deal wit dey operate out of di Belgian port of Antwerp, one city known for im criminal networks and illegal drugs trade. Dem also agree say na one man wit nickname Jabal lead di gang – “Di Mountain” for Arabic. Two of dem bin meet Jabal face to face. One bin tok on phone.
Di trail also take us further east to Berlin, wia anoda source confam Jabal identity and tell us say e bin promise am second crossing attempt, afta one first one bin go wrong.
All our sources, by dis point, bin dey tell us say “Di Mountain” dey Belgium, e fit be Antwerp.
We bin land for Antwerp for May and begin work on plan to locate and confront Di Mountain. One of im previous clients bin share foto, and anoda source bin provide us wit copy of im Iraqi passport and one European ID card wey show say e dey issued for 2021 for one remote Italian hill town wia investigations dey go on to chook eye for organised crime.
We discover say Di Mountain real name na Rebwar Abas Zangana, one Kurdish man from northern Iraq. E no marry. E be devout Muslim. Migrant imself – wit one unclear immigration status – wey recently dey live for Calais, Brussels, and Antwerp. Dem tell us say e dey work wit two partners and say a more senior figure fit even dey back for Iraq.
Mahmoud – our Arabic-speaking colleague bin pose as migrant wey dey try enta di UK – bin meet one middleman for one barber shop for Antwerp, wey confam say e sabi Di Mountain and go arrange for am to call us.
We bin wait nearly two weeks for dat call, but las-las, late one night, our phone ring.
“Hello. So you wan get to Britain? How many seats you need? You dey ready?”
Di Mountain bin speak for short, curt sentences. On dat call, and two oda phone tok-tok, e bin confam say e still very much dey business, assure us say di trip across di Channel na “one safe job”, and say e don improve im moves ince Sara die.
“How many of you dey ready?” e bin ask, add say di weather for Calais no good enough for crossing di next day.
But hours afta dat first call to us, we bin learn from one source say Di Mountain bin recently rush comot Antwerp. E mean say e dey fear arrest for im role for di five deaths for April. Di Mountain bin dey on di run.
Our source den share one screen grab from Di Mountain phone. Dem take am inside one large, white tent wit rows of black beds, di kind tin wey you fit see for refugee camp. Wen we search for internet for similar images, we quickly find one single and very close match, for one 2022 article about one new official refugee and migrant reception centre forLuxembourg.
We bin drive dia immediately.
Luxembourg na small kontri. Im primary reception centre for refugees and migrants dey di capital modern administrative centre. Why Di Mountain go come here? Maybe e simply dey hope to lie low for sometime, or to apply for asylum under new name.
But how we go dey sure say e even dey here? We no fit just waka inside. Di compound dey close to di general public, wit one single entry/exit point wey at least four private security pipo dey guard.
Dat first evening for Luxembourg, again posing as migrant wit name Mahmoud, our colleague manage to speak to Di Mountain by phone. For one co-ordinated move, anoda BBC colleague bin drive around di periphery of di compound same time, sound di car horn from time to time. We dey listen in for di conversation, we fit clearly hear di beeping dey come through di smuggler phone. Di Mountain dey here.
But how to lure am out and no cause suspicion? If e run again and we miss am, na back to square one.
Di only option na stakeout.
And so, for three days, our team bin keep watch, dey monitor di compound entrance, and dey look from one higher vantage point wey overlook di centre, wey give us view inside.
Finally, just bifor 15:00 on di third day, we spot Di Mountain dey waka out wit one group of oda migrants. E bin turn left, head towards di tram station. We begin run.
“No be me, broda. I no sabi anytin. Wetin be your problem?” e tok, as we catch up wit am.
E bin look anxious, but keep im voice low and non-confrontational as e back towards di tram station.
I bin take out one picture of Sara, and ask am if e go take blame for di seven-year-old death. E bin shake im head again.
And den we ring im phone number. E fit don ignore am. E fit don wait in silence until di tram arrive. But wen we ask am to answer im phone, and to show am to us, e confuse and do as we request.
Leaning closer, we see di screen and see di phone number wey we bin dey use call am for days to organise one small boat trip to di UK.
Doubt fit no dey about im identity.
After our confrontation, we bin tell di French police – wey dey lead di investigation into di deaths for April – about our findings. Dem tok say dem no go comment at dis stage.
Di UK dey spend half of one billion pounds over three years to support efforts by French police to secure dia coastline and to track and stop di pipo smuggling networks across Europe.
But di French border police tell us say dem dey deeply alarmed by di way violence of di smugglers dey grow, and claim some success for arrest of gang leaders – senior French officials don privately suggest say long-term solution go depend on di UK change in im own immigration and labour policies.
Today, Sara surviving family – her papa Ahmed, mama Nour, 12-year-old sister Rahaf and nine-year-old broda, Hussam – dey stay one temporary hostel for migrants for one tiny village outside di northern French city of Lille. Di pikin dem no get access to school, and no get right to remain for France beyond di autumn season.
“[I want] normal life, like everybodi. I dey miss out so much. I wan go school for England sake of say my cousin dey dia. She be my age. I miss… my friends,” Rahaf bin tell us, bifor e begin cry.
Ahmed dey in contact wit di French police, wey don show am fotos of some suspected smugglers as part of dia own investigation into di deaths. E don claim for di past say to hire smuggler na im only option. True or not, e tok say e don learn di hard lesson.
“Dis pipo dey greedy. Dem care only about money. I hope say dem go face justice. All of dem,” Ahmed tok.
“My daughter death must not be in vain.”
Additional reporting by Feras Kawaf and Kathy Long
Additional production/camera work by Paul Pradier, Marianne Baisnee, Riam El Dilati, Mohanad Hashim, Bruno Boelpaep, Xavier Vanpevenaege, Pol Reygaerts, Maarten Willems and Lea Guedj
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