Channel smuggling gangs resort to 'mega-dinghies' as crackdown limits small boat supply

What the report says

BBC World News reports that people-smuggling groups operating across the English Channel are changing tactics as tighter enforcement limits the supply of small boats. According to the BBC investigation, once-competing criminal networks are now collaborating more often because fewer boats are available, leading to the use of larger inflatable vessels described as “mega-dinghies.” The report says this shift is being driven by reduced crossing opportunities and rising pressure on smugglers on France’s northern coast.

The article describes scenes in Gravelines, northern France, where the BBC observed migrants boarding a dinghy in daylight as police watched from shore. It says smugglers are increasingly using “taxi boats” that depart from farther along the coastline to avoid detection, and that some launches now begin even outside France. The BBC also says the gangs have raised prices, with migrants reportedly being asked to pay more than before and to pay in cash.

The story places the developments against a broader backdrop of continued small-boat crossings into the UK and renewed concern over safety, after a record overcrowded boat recently drew political criticism. It also notes that emergency teams on both sides of the Channel worry that larger boats increase the risk to life. Separately, the BBC says the UK and France are preparing new measures, including more police officers on the French coast, to try to disrupt the crossings.