Migration madness as urgent warning issued over new 'national security crisis'

Migrants could be sneaking into Britain undetected after launching further down the French coast, Border Force officers fear. Heavy surveillance in the Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne regions and attempts to “smash the gangs” will simply force people smugglers to identify new routes, said Lucy Moreton, of the ISU union, which represents officers.

Ms Moreton called on ministers to be “more honest” and admitted Border Force is not “looking for them because the Government doesn’t want to look for them”. It comes as a leading academic dismissed Labour’s claim that a surge in migrant crossings is linked to good weather conditions, adding that smugglers can “facilitate” moving 1,000 people relatively easily. Home Office sources stressed nobody should be crossing the Channel illegally.

The Government is ramping up efforts to snare smugglers and wants France to begin intercepting boats in the water.

Ms Moreton added that France will have to rewrite its laws to deport illegal migrants in France to take a firmer grip on the Channel crisis.

She told the Daily Express: “When someone is trying to climb into a lorry, you see the same person three or four times a day, then they vanish because they made it. It’s the same with boats. Stopping that will mean the French dealing with those migrants, which they won’t do.

“All it does is defer it. If you make it impossible to get a small boat, they will try another way, they will get in a lorry.

“If they set a boat off in the water in Calais, we have lots of means of knowing where they are going and picking it up.

“If they set off further away, that network doesn’t exist, and we won’t see it.

“We strongly suspect, in fact we know, that larger fishing boats are setting out for British waters and dropping migrants in small boats. That is organised crime.

“People on a small boat don’t mind being caught. They want to be picked up.

“But what if they don’t want to be seen? We’re not looking for them because the Government doesn’t want to look for them.

“It’s a huge national security issue. I would like to see the Government being more honest about it and it needs more staff and resources.”

Two passenger aircraft equipped hi-tech cameras and radars give Border Force 24/7 surveillance of migrants trying to cross the Channel.

The two De Havilland Dash 8 aircraft – normally used as private passenger planes – are being deployed to help stop illegal landings, intercept the boats, prevent deaths at sea and provide intelligence on people smugglers and migrant movements.

Drones and sensors have also been deployed in the Channel to detect small boats.

The warning comes as leading academics rubbished Labour’s claim a surge in Channel crossings was purely linked to the weather.

The Home Office said there have been 60 so-called red days – when crossings are far more likely – this year, compared to 27 recorded in 2024.

This, officials said, coincided with 11,074 asylum seekers reaching British waters in small boats between January and April, compared to 7,567 the year before.

Alarmingly for ministers, the report warned 65% of crossings come in the second of the year, between July and December, prompting fears of a record number of crossings this year.

But Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, said: “I’m deeply sceptical about the argument that a long-term increase in small boat crossings results from weather.

“Yes, weather affects crossings in the short run. That is clear in the data. There are also more crossings in summer, when the risk of death is lower.

“But Home Office data doesn’t show any obvious correlation between the number of good weather days and boat crossings over the long term.

“And why would it? It’s much more plausible that a few consecutive days’ bad weather affects the timing of crossings rather than the total number in the long term.

“For good weather to have a long-term impact on boat arrivals, we need to assume one of two things. Either A, people casually drop migration plans due to a few days of bad weather and decide to migrate elsewhere.

“It’s a massive life decision – surely they’ll just wait for the next opportunity?

“Or, B, we must assume weather is a major bottleneck for smugglers and many more people want to travel but gangs simply can't get them across because there aren’t enough calm-weather days.

“But gangs can facilitate 1,000-plus crossings on some days. Most days with crossings have a few hundred.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “This Government is restoring grip to the broken asylum system it inherited that saw a whole criminal smuggling enterprise allowed to develop, where gangs have been able to exploit periods of good weather to increase the rate of crossings for too long.

“That’s why we are giving counter-terror style powers to law enforcement, launching an unprecedented international crackdown on immigration crime, have prevented 9,000 crossings from the French coastline this year alone and have returned almost 30,000 people since the election.

“At the same time, we are cracking down on the false promise of jobs used to sell spaces on these boats – with illegal working visits and arrests up by more than 40% under this Government.”