Channel crossings to explode as ruthless people smuggling gangs to ramp up trips

Ruthless foreign people smuggling gangs are expected to mount a “big Springtime push” to traffic tens of thousands of desperate migrants across the English Channel.

Over 20,000 migrants have arrived on small boats since Labour took power, up from 17,000 over the same period last year with 30,000 in the past 12 months.

But experts fear this number could rocket once the current winter months has passed with organised crime gangs profiting from the highly lucrative business of ferrying people over the channel in jam-packed flimsy rubber vessels which has allowed them to dramatically increase their business model.

Rob Jones, the NCA’s director general for operations, said: “We expect, again, a very big push from organised crime to pull migrants through routes into the English Channel.”

In a bid to try and prevent the impending tsunami British police have opened talks with China to request a crackdown on the manufacture and export of the small boat engines that are being used by the gangs.

The UK National Crime Agency said more than 50 improvised boats and engines have been intercepted and seized since early 2023.

They also seized about 450 engines early last year, the bulk of which are stored in Germany before being used in Channel crossings.

NCA investigators aim to build a case to convince the Chinese that engines are largely being used to illegally transport thousands of migrants across the Channel – and putting their lives at risk because the low-powered motors – designed for lakes – are being attached..

They have found that rigid-hulled vessels with proper engines that held around 12 people have almost entirely been phased out by gangs in favour of bigger but flimsier craft holding as many as 60 people.

He said the boats being used now were are “rubber dinghies that are little more than a paddling pool” with the small Chinese-built engines attached.

He blamed these lower quality boats for a record number of deaths, with more than 70 people killed while trying to cross the Channel this past year.

But Mr Jones said whilst there had been a big push to arrest and disrupt UK facilitators of the crossings “the vast majority of organised crime involved in small boats is not in the UK. It is upstream, it is overseas in Turkey, Belgium, Germany and then northern France.”

He said since 2021 the move away from sturdier Ribb boats to the flimsly boats now being used had enabled the gangs to increase their capacity from 5/6000 thousand to the current huge numbers being seen.

This year prices for crossings have quadrupled from their previous figure of around £1,200.

But the NCA say for the crossing to occur with growing frequency there needs to be a mix of the crucial ingredients which comprises “migrants, engines and boats all on the beaches of northern France at exactly the same time.”

Mr Jones added: “One of our objectives is targeting the aspects of the gang’s business model that is vulnerable which is the specialised improvised vessels.”

Mr Jones said whilst it is impossible to make the boats illegal due to their design, he said that because they are being used almost exclusively for Channel crossings, cross European legislation is being discussed to give law enforcement agencies civil seizure powers to confiscate them.

This would make the people smuggling business model much less financially viable because the gangs would be forced to use safer, smaller boats that could only carry a dozen migrants at a time.

He said: “It’s looking at regulation to make that seizable by customs as it comes across borders, and ensure when it doesn’t get into legitimate supply chain.

“And that goes all the way back to China, where these things are made and where they’re exported from.”

Director General Graeme Biggar confirmed the agency had recently begun conversations with China about their exports of small engines and dinghies that would likely be used in Channel crossings. If this supply was disrupted the gang’s business model would be thrown into chaos.

He added: “This is a positive for us. We will work on this with them and see what support and engagement we get.”

“You can begin to build a case to the Chinese about this that it’s probably going to be tied to organised immigration crime. They’re obviously Chinese companies, not Chinese state. So, we are going into their police to indicate that it’s important and to get cooperation,” he said.

The NCA is also working with Home Office officials to see whether they could emulate counter-terrorism legislation by introducing a new criminal offence of preparing an act of smuggling.

This could make it easier to prosecute people smugglers if investigators could show the seized engines and dinghies were intended to transport migrants across the Channel.

“What we need to do as a system is, where it’s appropriate, criminalise as much of their business model as possible,” added Mr Jones.

“That’s why the potential for new regulation, treating these unsafe vessels as something that shouldn’t be allowed to move across borders, because there is no legitimate use for them, and they are dangerous and people will die in them, is an important part of what we’re trying to do.”

Although the ultimate aim is to stop the boats, the disruption of the supply will push up the cost for the gangs as smaller legal dinghies would only be able to carry a fraction of the current loads of up to 80 migrants and would be more expensive to buy.

NCA chiefs also revealed that they had managed to take down 7,000 social media posts put up by the gangs advertising Channel crossings to migrants, up from 5,000 last year and 2,000 in 2022.