French police stand back and watch as migrant families including small children pack themselves onto small boats heading across the Channel to the UK
French police stood back and watched as entire families packed themselves into an overcrowded small boat heading across the Channel to the UK this morning.
It is thought six migrant boats left France in the first attempt to cross the English Channel in days on Saturday.
A group of men and women, which included multiple small children, was seen boarding a dinghy at a beach in Gravelines, which lies between Calais and Dunkirk.
But despite the brazen attempt, French police officers were seen standing on the beach and watching on, with one even seeming to take pictures on his phone.
After the boat was loaded, French authorities were then pictured escorting a small boat from aboard their own.
There have not been any arrivals of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats for a week, the latest Home Office figures show.
But 2025 is on course to set a record for Channel crossings, with more than 13,000 people having arrived so far, up 30 percent on the number recorded at this point last year, according to the latest data.
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to crack down on small boat crossings including with measures targeting smuggling gangs.
A group of men and women, which included multiple small children, was seen boarding a dinghy at a beach in Gravelines, which lies between Calais and Dunkirk
The Home Secretary has previously said gangs have been taking advantage of a higher number of calm weather days to make crossings.
Weather in the UK is set to be balmy on Saturday, with little wind and warm temperatures that could get up to 27C in some areas.
The new crossings come just weeks after the Prime Minister announced plans for 'return hubs' to send migrants back to the country they came to the UK from more easily.
The Prime Minister is eyeing up deals with Balkan countries, and some in Africa, to house failed asylum seekers.
Labour is looking to strike deals with the likes of Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Sir Keir had hoped Albania would join the scheme but was left embarrassed earlier this month when he travelled there, only to be publicly rebuffed by PM Edi Rama.
Speaking in Albania earlier this month, Sir Keir said: 'What now we want to do and are having discussions of, talks of, is return hubs which is where someone has been through the system in the UK, they need to be returned and we have to make sure they're returned effectively and we'll do that, if we can, through return hubs.
'So that's what the talks are about. I would say in this area no single measure is going to be the measure that is, if you like, a silver bullet.
Police officers in France were accused of standing and watching without intervening, with one even spotted appearing to take photographs on his phone
A young boy and his family prepare to board a boat in a bid to reach the UK from France
A young boy appears nervous as he is held on a small boat transporting refugees and migrants to the UK
Criminal gangs are increasingly overloading boats with up to 100 people as they make money from individuals' desperation
'By putting it all together - arrests, seizures, agreements with other countries, returning people who shouldn't be here, and return hubs, if we can through these talks to add to our armoury, will allow us to bear down on this vile trade and to make sure that we stop those people crossing the Channel.'
Downing Street said the plans were 'entirely different' to the last government's flagship Rwanda deportation scheme.
The new plan will involve sending paying to send potentially thousands of failed asylum seekers to the Balkans, rather than holding them in the UK until they can be removed.
In some cases, those involved will be from countries like Afghanistan which are deemed too dangerous to return people to.
Sir Keir was criticised by some earlier this month after delivering a speech in which he pledged to crack down on immigration and said the UK was at risk of becoming an 'island of strangers'.
But liberals said his words had echoes of Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech in 1968, which was accused of stoking years of racism and division in the UK.
Speaking on May 12, Sir Keir said he would give Brits what they had 'asked for time and time again' and 'significantly' reduce eye-watering immigration that has been inflicting 'incalculable damage'.
The Home Office estimates the government's package will bring down annual inflows by around 100,000. This figure reached a record of nearly one million under the Tories.
A French coastguard boat is seen monitoring a boat packed with people on Saturday morning in the sea off the coast of France
The remains of a small boat on the beach in Gravelines, France, following an unsuccessful attempt by people thought to be migrants to reach the UK
A group of people including women and young children are seen waiting to try and catch a boat to the UK
A young boy cries as he is carried into the sea to a small boat hoping to reach the UK
In a pivotal moment, he also rejected the Treasury orthodoxy that high immigration drives growth - pointing out the economy has stagnated in recent years.
Under the blueprint, skills thresholds will be hiked and rules on fluency in English toughened.
Migrants will also be required to wait 10 years for citizenship rather than the current five, and face deportation for even lower-level crimes.
Graduate visas will be reduced to 18 months, and a new levy introduced on income that universities generate from international students.
Requirements that sponsoring institutions must meet in order to recruit international students are also being tightened.
Official figures showed net long-term inflows into the UK were 431,000 in the year to December, compared with 860,000 across 2023.
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