Smugglers are launching boats from more than 100 miles south of Calais after being forced to change their tactics in a bid to evade British-funded crackdowns on French beaches.
The “mega dinghy” that carried 230 people to the UK on Monday had started its voyage from Paluel, a commune in Normandy, and travelled for hours up the coast gradually collecting passengers who had waded out into the sea.
French groups who offer support to migrants say launches from the area are becoming increasingly frequent, and estimate that at least 3,000 people are still waiting for small boat crossings on the northern coast.
Salomé Brun, of the Calais Appeal charity, told The i Paper that boats were being launched from increasingly further south, particularly around the port of Dieppe, because the coast around the previously popular crossing points in Dunkirk and Calais “is being increasingly securitised and monitored by law enforcement”.
“No matter how hard the deterrence is, people are still adapting to it and still trying to depart,” she said. “Increasing securitisation at the border only puts people at greater risk – it doesn’t prevent them from crossing.”
Thousands still waiting for small boat crossings
The Utopia 56 charity, which operates an emergency hotline for migrants whose boats are in distress, said they were also seeing vessels launched from Dieppe and different parts of Normandy.
Angèle Vettorello said the new hotspots were “really far away” from the coastline commonly used over previous years, and that the changes were the “consequence of border policies funded by the UK”.
“With the ‘taxi boat’ dynamic, the boats are launched far away where there is less police, and passengers are picked up somewhere else,” she added. “The average number of people on board one boat is just increasing more and more.”
Local charities estimate that there are currently around 1,000 migrants living in tents in Calais waiting for small boat crossings, and 2,000 to 2,500 in Dunkirk, Brun said.
French authorities regularly evict people from encampments in those areas, and have been trying to stop people gathering on beaches or getting into boats using tear gas and other tactics.
Gendarmes, the French police, have also been combing coastal areas for dinghies and engines, while the National Crime Agency has led investigations resulting in the seizure of equipment stockpiles.
The Home Office has said that a new “payment-by-results deal” with France will see 40 per cent more boots on the ground on French beaches and that a year-on-year drop in small boat crossings shows its strategy is working.
Government warned smugglers will ‘innovate’
But a report published last month by Britain’s Border Security Command said that while the number of people reaching the UK on small boats had fallen significantly this year – by 42 per cent compared to the same period in 2025 – the figure was not “definitive” and numbers “could change rapidly”.
The report predicted that smuggling gangs would adapt their tactics, adding: “We have steadily forced organised crime groups into a less advantageous position, but we should be prepared for them to innovate to protect their profits.”
Border Security Command said such innovations had included the use of larger vessels and “taxi boats” launched from inland waterways that pick up migrants in shallow offshore waters.
It warned that Britain “does not control all the levers required to stop” crossings, pointing to the use of legally purchased equipment from China, a network of “adaptable and resilient” criminal groups who are based abroad and the fact that intervening once boats are at sea is “extremely dangerous”.
“New smuggling routes for migrants and equipment are created in response to law enforcement pressure, and tactics on the beaches continue to evolve,” the report concluded.
“Changes in OCG [organised crime group] tactics suggest law enforcement on the French coast is making departures more difficult, but attempted journeys continue despite these constraints.
PM says Government will change tactics in response
Prime Minister Andy Burnham acknowledged that smugglers were changing their tactics on Tuesday but said the Government would respond.
“We will now change our tactics, and we will be relentless in chasing them down,” he told GB News.“There is more law enforcement on the other side of the Channel in summer 2026 than there was last summer, and that has led to quite a reduction in the number of crossings. But that’s not good enough.
“People will say to me, ‘We don’t want any crossings’. I understand that concern. There are further things that we are doing, and we will keep going at this issue until we deliver that eradication that people are looking for.”
Following The i Paper’s reporting of the fact that a Chinese company sanctioned by the British government for selling small boats to smugglers was still operating a year later, the Home Office said it was working with manufacturers, suppliers and international partners to prevent small boat equipment reaching gangs, and that more than 1,100 small boats and engines has been seized since the 2024 election.
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