RUTHLESS SMALL BOAT GANGS SET FOR 'BIG SPRINGTIME PUSH'

Migrant Channel crossings will soar in 2025, warns National Crime Agency chief

- Paul Jeeves

RUTHLESS smuggling gangs are expected to mount a "big springtime push" to traffic tens of thousands of migrants across the Channel.

More than 23,000 have arrived since Labour took power last July, up from 17,000 over the same period in 2023, making the total 36,816 in the past year. Experts fear this number could rocket when the winter months have passed.

Rob Jones, of the National Crime Agency, said: "We expect a very big push from organised crime gangs to pull migrants through routes into the Channel." Police have opened talks with China to request a crackdown on the manufacture and export of the small boat engines being used by the gangs.

The NCA said that more than 50 improvised boats and engines have been intercepted and seized since 2023. They also separately seized 450 engines early last year, the bulk of which are stored in Germany before being used in Channel crossings.

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

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 up to 60 people.