A people smuggler who charged wealthy middle-class Africans to flee the UK has been jailed, despite claims he was “doing the government’s job for them”.

Majid Belabes, 53, an Algerian national who gained British citizenship more than 20 years ago, was charging up to £1,500 to smuggle people into France.

Migrants would travel to the UK by legal means, but, after the French clampdown on issuing visas to visitors from several former colonies, including Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, then be smuggled into the continent on the back of a lorry.

Balebes, who until recently was living in a council-owned apartment on the top floor, masterminded a sophisticated operation that involved picking migrants up from a hostel in London.

Often, Balebes, who was married with four children, would pick migrants up from the Safetstay hostel, previously the Labour Party’s HQ until 1997, himself.

He took advantage of a network of corrupt Algerian taxi drivers that he used to ferry his clients to the coast, near Dover, where they would be put into the back of a Calais-bound lorry.

Migrants were charged an average of £1,200 per journey, with cab drivers taking just £40 of the proceeds for their part.