Crowded migrant boat departs while French police watch

More than a dozen officers, wearing armor and carrying batons, watched as the dinghy struggled into the Channel.

This shocking moment shows dozens of migrants risking their lives in a flimsy dinghy to cross the Channel, despite Keir Starmer’s promise to ‘stop the gangs’.

The French police failed to prevent the boat launch, even as asylum seekers waded into the water. More than a dozen officers, wearing armor and carrying batons, watched as the dinghy struggled into the Channel.

Many young men sat on the sides of the boat, while others sat in the middle on a piece of plywood holding it together. A hooded man steered the boat to hide his identity.

New intelligence suggests Kurdish smuggling gangs in northern France look for migrants with boating experience across the Mediterranean, offering them a free journey in exchange.

Smugglers tell asylum seekers to delete photos of the camps to keep investigators from finding clues. Experts from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said smugglers ask migrants to delete camp photos and videos, and sometimes to throw their phones overboard if rescued at sea.

Smugglers used to test engines out of water, damaging them and making them more likely to fail at sea. According to Albanian migrants, boat captains are usually Kurdish or someone who understands the smugglers’ instructions. However, Africans with boat piloting experience are preferred and recruited if they can provide video proof of their experience; they get a free passage in return.

The Maps.Me app, which works offline, is used to navigate on the boat or reach the dunes. The fragmented smuggling network leads to overcrowded boats.

GIATOC warned that intermediaries, not smugglers, are responsible for overloading boats. These intermediaries, often Afghan or African, add extra passengers and keep the extra fare, which can lead to migrant deaths and severe repercussions.

On Tuesday, 419 asylum seekers crossed the Channel in six boats despite dangerous weather. This suggests smugglers are packing around 70 migrants in some dinghies. Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick criticized the scrapping of the Rwanda plan without an alternative, saying it led to more migrants cramming into boats.

Border Force sources have long warned about the increasing size of boats used by smugglers. Smugglers have also started using “taxi boats” to pick migrants up from the beach.

Labour has pledged to “smash the gangs” and create a Border Security Command to catch smugglers. This will be partly funded by ending the Rwanda deportation scheme. More British investigators and spies will be based in Europe to catch the criminals.

Sources told the Daily Express that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s team hopes MI5 will treat people smugglers like foreign spies and terrorists, potentially bugging their phones and tracking their movements. Cooper has ordered a review of how the gangs operate, believing there are more opportunities to disrupt them.

Intelligence on the gangs’ operations, locations, routes, and communications with migrants could help MI5 and the National Crime Agency disrupt them before they reach the French coast. Counter-terror powers will be extended to cover organized immigration crime, allowing searches, bank account closures, travel restrictions, and movement tracking before an offense occurs. The Home Office confirmed new legislation is being drafted.