Channel migrant gives officials the slip – then beams at how easy it was to escape
- Albanian Elvis Zoto, 19, boasted on social media about illegally entering the UK
- The migrant even posted a photo of his Home Office registration form
- He claims to have been moved to a hotel after two days of detention
an illegal A migrant who crossed to Britain in a small boat last month has been caught by The Mail on Sunday beaming at the ease with which he could ‘disappear’.
Elvis Zoto, 19, boasted on social media about illegally entering the UK and even posted a photo of his Home office registration form showing that the Albanian arrived in Dover on June 29.
He claims to have been moved to a hotel after two days of detention and says he promptly escaped by climbing through a window. Asylum seekers are required to keep in touch with the Interior Ministry as part of their release and to notify authorities of any new address.
Posted a video on Zoto’s TikTok social media account earlier this month shows him sitting outside a cafe on a busy London street. The video is accompanied by smiling emojis. Separate images show Zoto posing with huge wads of £20 and £50 notes.
An illegal migrant who crossed to Britain in a small boat last month was caught by The Mail on Sunday beaming at the ease with which he could ‘disappear’. Migrants arrive in Dover earlier this month
Zoto was approached by a Mail on Sunday reporter posing as an immigrant to France and claimed the journey to the UK was easy but advised them to ‘hurry up’ with their journey as ‘the law will change soon’.
Asked about the dangers of crossing the Channel in a small boat, he said, ‘Don’t be afraid of it. I arrived on a boat. A trip that does not require much money and the best for you. . . Be quick and don’t wait long. The law will change soon. Getting worse.’
In a later post, he added: “They will hold you for up to two days and then send you to a hotel. Conditions are good in the detention center. You tell them you’re married and that’s the end of the story. You have to get away from the hotel and just wait for your relatives to get you in a car. I left from the window of that hotel. . . I disappeared. . . Stay inconspicuous and call in a lawyer after a month.’
He also told the undercover reporter to ignore the threat of removal to Rwanda under the government’s controversial plan to send migrants to the East African country.
“Well, that’s what the state says, but it’s not true,” he said.
Asked about Zoto’s comments, Alp Mehmet, chairman of the think tank Migration Watch, said: “This sums up the dire state of our immigration and asylum systems.
“The ease with which our borders can be breached by such underprivileged people who then simply disappear is a shame.”
The case comes just days after a report by independent superintendent of borders and immigration, David Neal, revealed that 227 migrants fled allegedly secured hotels between September and January and are still missing.
He wrote: ‘The performance of the Ministry of Interior in providing an effective and efficient response to the challenge posed by the increasing number of migrants arriving via small boats is poor.’
More than 15,000 people – including criminals previously deported from the UK – have crossed the Channel this year. Last night a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior said: ‘If an asylum seeker goes into hiding before a decision has been made on his application, or if he does not comply with our procedures, his asylum application may be withdrawn.
“We have a dedicated national team in hiding that works together with the police, other government agencies and commercial companies to track down people in hiding and reconnect them with the Ministry of the Interior.”