The people traffickers’ mega-boat ferries a load of migrants across the sea from France to Britain, roaring at high speed through waves towards the Kent coast.
Each of the 16 young men on board the 36ft-long inflatable is wearing an expensive lifejacket.
The skipper, in a designer waterproof, has his hand firmly on the tiller of the boat’s powerful outboard as he heads for the White Cliffs of Dover.
Their craft is evidence of the latest tactic used by the ruthless people-smugglers — massive inflatable boats, some capable of carrying up to 70 passengers.
The migrants were spotted last Tuesday afternoon in English waters on their 21-mile illegal cross-Channel journey, and a few moments later they were picked up by Britain’s Border Force vessel, Speedwell, and ferried safely into Dover.
They had enjoyed their journey untroubled by the French navy, which is tasked with stopping them making the crossing.
‘It was just before 1pm British time when the Border Force reached them,’ said a south coast sailor who contacted the Mail about the pick up.
Smugglers are upping their game to ferry migrants across the Channel in record numbers
An investigation has revealed that RNLI boats now go into French waters to pick up migrants
‘Anyone who knows about the Channel could see the skipper, probably a migrant himself, was an accomplished seaman plotting a safe course from France.
‘It was a people smugglers’ vessel. Yet its occupants were collected by Speedwell. The crew even towed the traffickers’ mega-boat to shore too.’
I have been investigating the cross-Channel migrant business for months, and judging by activities this week it is clear that the traffickers are upping their game and that the British authorities are floundering in response to the numbers of new arrivals.
I can reveal that these lengthy super-inflatables are the new mode of transport for migrants prepared to stump up premium sums for rapid trips across the Channel.
In addition, I discovered that Border Force vessels are using covert tactics to keep their activities hidden, and that one of their techniques is to communicate with the French navy using ‘closed’ radio channels as opposed to the open channel most boats use.
And what is more, it is clear that the Royal National Lifeboat Institution — the registered charity so many of us help fund through donations, garden fetes and collection boxes — is regularly sending its vessels into French waters to bring in migrants.
A Border Force boat, Speedwell, pictured picking up immigrants in the Channel in June
It is, say critics, doing so even if they are not in imminent danger and in areas which are the responsibility of the French — not British — sea rescue services.
Migrant sea arrivals to the south coast have topped 5,000 in 2021 so far. It is predicted a total of 20,000 could come this year.
This week at least 300 crossed the Channel, many of them in the traffickers’ new vessel of choice — the super-inflatable.
One mega-boat brought into Dover this week by Border Force was carrying 60 migrants.
Another had so many people on board that the traffickers could not supply enough lifejackets for them before they were launched off a French beach.
They were instead given car tyres to cling to in the sea if their boat capsized.
The Mail has learned that, in a sophisticated crime operation, mega-inflatables are being bought in bulk by traffickers in countries such as Austria — or from outside the EU bloc.
They are then dismantled, before being secretly transported by lorry to the French coast and reassembled at secret locations.
An eleven-metre dinghy used by people traffickers to send migrants across the channel
For the traffickers, the mega-boats are a business investment — the more migrants that they can squeeze on to a boat, the more money they make.
And the quicker these international criminals can transport their cargo of humans to Britain, the richer they become.
The traffickers have increased the efficiency of their operations. The length of time a migrant has to wait between reaching the north French coast and getting a place on a boat to the UK is now just a few weeks, compared with months last year.
The people smuggling operations are slick, professional — and bewildering our Government.
Home Secretary Priti Patel warned this week that, because of the failure to stop migrants, she plans to put a new supremo in charge of stopping Channel crossings.
Two directors-general of Border Force and Immigration Enforcement are expected to quit their positions.
Yet for now the traffickers hold all the trump cards. They even instruct migrants leaving boats from France to call UK emergency services while at sea — and then wait to be collected by the British.
This week, the Mail learned from three different sources that migrants on one mega-boat heading across the Channel phoned the West Midlands’ police, using a number given to them by traffickers, to say they were sinking.
Pictured: Up to sixty more migrants arrived into the Port of Dover on the first day of the month
The Force duly alerted the British coastguard which dispatched Border Force vessels to sea to collect them.
Astonishing pictures have emerged of empty mega-boats piling up in harbours at Dover after being towed in by Border Force or slipping in from France to make independent beach landings along the Kent coast.
The Mail used maritime tracking websites to monitor the scores of migrant journeys this week.
Through these sites, we found the exact spot in English waters off Kent where Speedwell picked up the mega-boat and its occupants on Tuesday.
An expose by the Mail last month showed that Border Force’s cutter Valiant colluded with the French patrol ship Athos to scoop up migrants from the French
