In the nineteen-eighties, the price for this kind of illegal passage was eighteen thousand dollars.
But he makes his real money arranging illegal passage for would-be migrants.
In 1998, he paid $500 for an illegal passage in a small boat from his native Morocco across the narrow strait to Spain.
It is this volume that makes it attractive to gangs and a nightmare for customs trying to combat the illegal passage of everything from pangolins to rocket launchers.
Alongside the camels, leather work and spices on offer is another much sought-after commodity these days – illegal passage from some of the worlds most benighted nations to Europe.
The acting secretary of security, Timothy Tong, said that as a result of the decision, pregnant women from mainland China would risk a dangerous, illegal passage into Hong Kong to have babies who would have the right to live here.
The authorities have vowed that no "second Sangatte" will be allowed to take root in Calais, a reference to the Red Cross camp for migrants outside the town that was demolished in 2002 and which Britain said was a springboard for illegal passage across the English Channel.
More than 11,000 people have made this crossing since Hungary closed its border with Serbia with a barbed wire fence on Tuesday, the vast majority using the illegal passage between checkpoints with the seeming blessing of the overwhelmed Croatian authorities.
