Scorpio: Barzan Majeed, Europe's most wanted human smuggler – BBC News Thailand

I am sitting in a shopping mall in Iraq. Face to face with one of Europe's most famous smugglers.

His name is Barzan Majeed and he is wanted by the police in many countries. Including the United Kingdom.

Throughout our conversation even in this store today and the next day in his office. Barzan said he did not know how many migrants he transported across the English Channel.

“Maybe a thousand people or tens of thousands of people. I don't know. I haven't counted.”

This meeting was the culmination of a mission that seemed impossible. A few months ago

Me and Rob Lowry, a former soldier who works with refugees. They travel together and search for the man known as “Scorpio”.

For many years, he and his gang controlled much of the trade involved in people smuggling across the border. Both by boat and truck using the route through the English Channel

Since 2018, more than 70 migrants have died while traveling by boat. Last month, five people died off the coast of France. One of them was a 7-year-old girl.

It was a dangerous trip. But for smugglers this is a very profitable business.

They can charge £6,000 per person for the boat crossing. In 2023, nearly 30,000 people will try to reach this way. This also confirms how profitable this business is.

Our interest in Scorpio has begun. We once met a young girl in a refugee camp near Calais in northern France who almost died while trying to cross the English Channel. Due to traveling in a hard bottom inflatable boat

Inflatable boats are not suitable for sea navigation, they are cheap used goods bought from Belgium. Furthermore, none of the nineteen people on board had life jackets. Who sends people to the sea in such conditions?

When the police in the UK receive illegal immigrants and they confiscate his mobile phone to search it. It has been shown that since 2016, the same number has been found more and more in the registration system. The number is often called the “scorpion” and is sometimes recorded on the device with the image of a scorpion.

Martin Clarke, a senior investigating officer at the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), said officials began to realize that “Scorpion” was an Iraqi Kurdish man in their possession… called Barzan Majeed.

In 2006, when he was 20, Majeed was smuggled into the UK in the back of a lorry. Although they were refused permission to continue residing in this country. But it emerged that he lived in the UK for many years after that. Some of them were imprisoned on weapons and drug charges.

He was eventually deported from the UK to Iraq in 2015, shortly after. It is believed that Majeed “inherited” the people-smuggling operation from his brother, who is serving a prison sentence in Belgium. And Majeed became “Scorpio”

Between 2016 and 2012, the majority of cross-border trade is thought to have been in Europe and the UK. Under the control of the Scorpion gang

A two-year Interpol operation resulted in 26 gang members being convicted by courts in the UK, France and Belgium.

But the scorpion evaded capture and fled. He did not attend the trial, as a Belgian court convicted him on 121 charges related to illegal immigration. In 2022, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 10 million baht (about 390 million baht).

Since then, no one knows the exact whereabouts of the scorpion. This is the mystery we want to decipher.

Rob's Contact We were introduced to an Iranian man who says he has had contact with a Scorpio. When he tried to cross the strait, Scorpio told the Iranians that he was staying in Türkiye, where he ran his business from afar.

We also follow Majeed's brother in Belgium. After learning that he had been released from prison, he said that Scorpio might have been in Türkiye.

For most UK-bound migrants Türkiye is an important outpost. Due to relatively relaxed immigration laws it is therefore easier for people from countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. If you want to obtain an entry visa to Türkiye

The available information led us to a café in Istanbul, Türkiye. Barzan Majeed was recently seen stopping at the café.

Our initial inquiries did not go as smoothly as expected. When I asked the store manager if he could tell us about the people smuggling business, the entire store fell into silence.

Not long after, a man walked by our table and unzipped his jacket to reveal a gun. It's a reminder that we are dealing with dangerous people.

Our next destination yielded more promising results. We learned that Majeed had just deposited 200,000 euros (about $20,000) at an exchange shop a few blocks away. We left our number there. At midnight the next night, Rob's phone rang.

By checking the phone number, it was found that “this number has been suspended,” while the other person on the call claimed to be Barzan Majeed.

It was very late and I wasn't expecting the call. So, the news team didn't record the beginning of the conversation. “He said, 'I heard you were looking for me,' and I said, 'Who are you?' And he said, 'Huh!' You can call me that, okay?''

There was no way to know if this was Barzan's voice. Is Majid the real one? But the details he told us are consistent with the information we have. He said he lived in Nottingham until 2015, when he was deported. But he denies his involvement in human trafficking.

He protested, saying: “This is not true, these are just media reports.”

The call was cut off, and despite our indirect attempts to verify his whereabouts, Scorpio did not provide any clues about his whereabouts.

We don't know when he will call again. At the same time we were told that from Rob's contact in the area the Scorpio company was involved in smuggling migrants from Turkey to Greece and Italy.

What we heard was heartbreaking. When they said there were more than 100 men, women and children crammed into a yacht that was only allowed to carry 12 passengers.

The yachts are often piloted by smugglers with no sailing experience. They often take dangerous routes that pass through groups of small islands to avoid coast guard patrols.

This business makes a lot of money. Passengers are said to have paid around 10,000 euros (about 10,000 US dollars) to secure a seat on the boats. More than 720,000 people have attempted to cross the eastern Mediterranean to Europe over the past decade. Of these, nearly 2,500 people died, most of them due to drowning.

Julia Schaffermeier According to the charity SOS Mediterranean, traffickers are putting people's lives at serious risk. “I don't think about the life or death of immigrants. What difference does it make to them?”

This time, we had the opportunity to ask Scorpio directly. Because he called us again unexpectedly.

He again denied being a migrant smuggler. Majeed considered that the definition of this word seems to refer to the people who carry out the work at the front and not the masterminds behind the scenes.

“You have to be there,” he told us, adding, “So far, I haven’t been there.” “Money dealers” only

Majeed appears to show little sympathy for the drowned migrants.

“Machine [ลิขิตแล้ว] When will you die? “But sometimes it's your fault,” Scorpio said. “God does not always prevent you from entering the ship.”

Our next stop was a resort in the Turkish resort of Marmaris, where Turkish police believe Scorpion owns a villa. We kept asking people until we got a phone call from a woman who said she was a friend of his.

She knew that Majeed was involved in smuggling people across the border. Even that would stress him out, he said. But money is what worries him most. This is not the fate of immigrants.

“He doesn't care about them. It's really sad, isn't it?” she said. “It's something that makes me ashamed when I look back. Because… I heard things and I realized that this is not a good thing.

She added that I personally have not seen Majeed at the villa in Marmaris for a while. Someone said he might be in Iraq.

This point matches the information of another contact who said that I saw this scorpion in an exchange shop in Sulaymaniyah. It is located in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

We depart from Marmaris. He decided that he must surrender. If we do not find the scorpion in Iraq

But Rob managed to contact Majid. At first he was very skeptical and worried that we would take the opportunity to bring him back to Europe.

The next incident was followed by numerous letters to Rob. Scorpio said he might be able to find us. But he must be allowed to choose the location himself. Which we refused because we were worried that he might make a scene.

Then a message was sent saying: “Where are you?” We said we were on our way to a nearby department store, and Scorpio told us to meet him at a café on the ground floor of the store.

Finally we saw him.

Barzan Majeed looks like a rich golfer. He was wearing black jeans and a light blue shirt. Wearing with a black jacket.

When he put his hands on the table we saw his beautifully manicured nails.

We guessed that the three men sitting at the next table were his bodyguards and security.

He again denied being the primary mastermind of a criminal organisation. He said it was other members of the criminal gang who tried to get involved with him.

“There were two or three people who said that when they were arrested ‘work for it’ because they ‘want a lighter sentence’.”

He also expressed his bitterness when he said that other smugglers had obtained British passports. The human smuggling trade can continue

“In 3 days, one man sent between 170 and 180 people from Turkey to Italy. “I also want to do business abroad,” he said, still holding a British passport. “But I can’t do that.”

When we pressed him to answer questions about his responsibility for the deaths of migrants, he repeated what he said on the phone, which is that he only accepts money and arranges reservations.

For him, human smugglers are those who arrange to transport migrants on boats and trucks. And then transport them to their destination. “I never put anyone on a plane. I never killed anyone.

The conversation ended there. But Scorpio invites Rob to see the money exchange shop in Sulaymaniyah where he works.

It's a small office. On the window there was writing in Arabic with some mobile phone numbers, where people were coming to the store to pay the fare. Rob said he saw a man carrying a box full of cash. When he was there

On this occasion, Scorpion also shared how he entered the business in 2016, when thousands of people were heading to Europe.

“No one is forcing them. They went voluntarily,” he said. “The smugglers sometimes say: ‘Please take us with you.’ ‘For God’s sake we will help them.’” And then they complained, “Oh, that, that… No, that's right.”

Between 2016 and 2019, Scorpion said he was one of two people working in Belgium and France. While he admitted that millions of dollars flowed through him during that period.

“My job is many things. Money, location, passengers, smugglers… I am in them all.”

Majeed also denied his involvement in human smuggling. But his actions seem to contradict this statement.

Scorpio wasn't careful when he was browsing his cell phone. Rob saw the reflection on the screen from a polished picture frame on the back wall.

What Rob saw was a list of passport numbers, and we later learned that smugglers pass these numbers on to Iraqi officials. They then accepted bribes to issue fraudulent visas to immigrants. So that I can travel to Türkiye

That was the last time we saw Scorpio.

At every step of the search for Majid we share our findings with the British and European authorities.

Anne Lukowiak, the prosecutor in Belgium involved in the Scorpio trial. Hope one day he will be extradited from Iraq.

“It was important for us to send the message that you can't do what you want, and we will eventually take it down,” she said.