Exclusive: the traffickers preying on migrants hoping to reach the UK

An undercover reporter working for ITV News posed as a migrant trying to reach the UK and found he was a valuable commodity to traffickers.

Within half an hour of arriving in Paris, I was approached by a man who offered me the chance to get into Britain.

In a green and leafy park behind the famous Paris gard de Nord train station, the trafficker explained the various ways I could get to England by train from Calais.

I told them I wanted the safest route to London. There are plenty of options I was told - but all at a cost.

"There is a way from Cherbourg - people are going from there but it's not a safe way," he said. "They are travelling for 10 to 18 hours then they get captured and sent back."

He conceded that the route he was offering me from Calais "depends on luck" but once I was onboard a train, he explained, "as long as the train starts there is no return back. No one going to send you back."

I didn't need to worry about being captured by the French, he told me. "If you tell them you want to go to the UK, they won't take your fingerprints."

This is important to migrants - if a migrant has their fingerprints taken in France they can be deported back to the country where those prints were first recorded.

In the same park, a different trafficker spotted me as a potential customer. As we sat and watched children in the playground, he phoned his superiors and spoke in code - I was described as a "lamb".

"There is a lamb with me. I need it in one hour to be slaughtered, roasted and eaten. Is that possible?" Four steak, five steak, nine steak - tell me how much you want."

"Slaughtered, roasted and eaten," is code for a safe crossing. The steak is code for "thousands".

Shortly after our meeting I met a 14-year-old Afghan boy who was crying and distressed - he had been robbed by a trafficker.

The boy knew of more traffickers in Calais and despite his experience, was still desperate to contact them. After speaking to one, we were ordered to go to Lille. There we were picked up by a taxi that took us to the migrant camp known as the Jungle, on the outskirts of the town.

I met a trafficker who calmly offered me two routes to the UK on the Eurotunnel.

One way, he explained is €7,000 (£4,900) for a "luxury" route to England with food and drink. He explained that once I was through the fences at Eurotunnel there will be a pre-arranged lorry and driver waiting for me.

This driver will take €2,000 per migrant for a space in his lorry behind the driver's seat, or in a hidden compartment in the trailer.

"I've been to England five times," he told me. "Going and coming back."For migrants with up to €9,000 to spare, there is another route. For that amount, I could enter the UK through Belgium by sail boat.

But the cheapest route - the most likely option for most migrants - is €1,200. This, I was told, will get me through the Eurotunnel fences, but once there I would have to make my own luck.

More: Trafficking pricelist: How lorry drivers are charging migrants to get into UK

If I fail, I will be allowed two more attempts with the traffickers, then my money and chances are gone and I must pay again.

And the 14-year-old boy? He made it to the UK and is being cared for by a local authority.

This evening, more migrants are gathering by the terminal to try again, as they have done many nights before and will do for many nights again, to get to the UK.