Channel migrant gives officials the slip – then gloats about how easy it was to escape

An illegal migrant who last month crossed to Britain in a small boat has been caught by The Mail on Sunday gloating about the ease with which he has been able to ‘disappear’.

Elvis Zoto, 19, boasted on social media about entering the UK illegally and even posted a picture of his Home Office registration form that shows the Albanian arrived in Dover on June 29.

He claims to have been moved from detention to a hotel after just two days and says he promptly escaped by climbing through a window. Asylum seekers are required to maintain contact with the Home Office as part of their release and to inform the authorities of any new address.

A video posted 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 laughing emojis. Separate images show Zoto posing with huge wads of £20 and £50 banknotes.

Approached by a Mail on Sunday reporter posing as an immigrant in France, Zoto claimed the journey to the UK was easy, but advised them to ‘hurry’ with their trip because ‘the law will change soon’.

Asked about the dangers of crossing the Channel on a small boat, he said: ‘Do not be scared of it. I arrived on a boat. A journey that doesn’t need a lot of money and the best for you . . . Hurry up and do not wait long. The law will change soon. It will get worse.’

In a later message, he added: ‘They keep you in detention a maximum of two days, then send you to a hotel. In the detention centre it’s good conditions. You tell them you are 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 . . . Keep a low profile and after a month get a solicitor.’

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 sorry state of our immigration and asylum systems.

‘The ease with which our borders can be breached by such mickey-taking chancers who then go on to simply disappear is a disgrace.’

The case comes just days after a report by David Neal, Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, revealed 227 migrants absconded from supposedly secure hotels between last September and January and remain missing.

He wrote: ‘The Home Office’s performance in delivering an effective and efficient response to the challenge posed by the increasing volume of migrant arrivals via small boats is poor.’

More than 15,000 people – including criminals who had previously been deported from the UK – have crossed the Channel this year. Last night, a Home Office spokesman said: ‘If an asylum seeker absconds before a decision is made on their claim, or if they fail to comply with our processes, their asylum claim can be withdrawn.

‘We have a dedicated national absconder tracing team working with the police, other government agencies and commercial companies to track down and bring absconders back into contact with the Home Office.’