The dangerous new strategy used by people traffickers to outwit French police and smuggle boat loads of Channel migrants into the UK
People smugglers are adopting a dangerous new tactic of simultaneously launching multiple small boats at once to try and dodge French police, officials warn.
EU border agency Frontex said in an official updated that traffickers were adapting their methods in an attempt to boost the number of successful crossings.
EU border agency Frontex said in an official update that traffickers were adapting their methods in an attempt to boost the number of successful crossings.
It said the tactic of 'simultaneous departures' was putting more lives at risk by overwhelming search and rescue teams.
The risk is being compounded by smugglers packing more migrants into flimsy dinghies, with 54 people per boat in the year ending March 2025 compared with 50 in 2024, according to Home Office figures.
Channel crossings continued today, with pictures showing new arrivals wearing life jackets being brought to shore in a Border Force boat in Dover, Kent and being driven away from the port.
They are the first to make the journey to the UK so far this month after a record first five months of the year bringing the provisional total so far to 14,812 arrivals.
This has also surpassed the highest total recorded for the first six months of the year, which was previously 13,489 on June 30 last year.
In 2024, the number of arrivals did not reach more than 14,000 until July 9 (14,058).
The surge in Channel crossings came despite Frontex recording a 20 per cent drop in irregular border crossings into the European Union in the first five months of 2025.
A major point of contention between Britain and France has been the French authorities' refusal to turn back migrants who are already in the water.
The French government has now indicated its willingness to change tactics and turn back boats in the shallows, but are demanding more money to do so.
Representatives from both governments are currently negotiating a new deal aimed at cracking down on smuggling gangs which is said to be in the early stages.
Since 2015, British governments have spent £800 million to France to stop the crossings of people across the world's busiest shipping lane in small boats.
It comes as Rachel Reeves used her spending review to pledge to end the 'costly' use of hotels to house asylum-seekers – but not for up to four years.
The Chancellor said migrants would be moved out of hotels by the end of the current Parliament, with the next general election not due until 2029.
She also promised £1billion of savings by speeding up the asylum system, along with £280million more investment in future years for the new Border Security Command.
'The party opposite left behind a broken system: billions of pounds of taxpayers' money spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels, leaving people in limbo and shunting the cost of failure onto local communities. We won't let that stand,' Ms Reeves told the Commons.
'So I can confirm today that, led by the work of the Home Secretary, we will be ending the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this Parliament.'
But the Tories said taking asylum-seekers out of hotels would simply move them into rented accommodation across the country, while speeding up asylum decisions would mean more people granted leave to remain.
Julia Lopez wrote on X: 'The Home Office just wants people off their books as fast as possible - straight onto the books of local councils.
'That means more positive asylum decisions - only making it more attractive to cross. And so it will go on.'
Shadow Home Office minister Matt Vickers added: 'Rachel Reeves claims Labour will ' end the use of asylum hotels '.
'But if they won't commit to deport all illegal immigrants, where will they go? Coming to a house on your street?'
Latest figures show £3.1billion was spent on housing asylum-seekers in hotels in 2023-24, out of a total asylum support bill of £4.7bn.
More than 30,000 asylum-seekers are currently housed in about 200 hotels across Britain, and ministers are currently looking at moving them into derelict tower blocks and student digs instead.
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Daily Mail
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