smuggling

Mr Walsh is also sceptical of whether people smuggling gangs can be cracked at scale, drawing the comparison of drugs gangs.

But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that working with other countries to intercept people before they reached the coast of France and undermining the business models of smuggling gangs was crucial.

He regularly toured a one-man show in which he recounted stories about drug smuggling and his time in prison.

After weeks of digging through people smuggling networks, the BBC established contact with an Afghan smuggler in Iran, aiming to get an insight into the increased dangers Afghans are facing.

In 2023, Auty was convicted of smuggling millions of pounds of criminal cash from London to Dubai, and sentenced to 42 months in prison.