Nearly 150 illegal migrants cross Channel despite UK paying for 200 extra French officers to patrol beaches

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Arrivals were taken by Border Force to the migrant processing centre at Dover harbour

Criminal gangs launched two migrant boats from French beaches today, despite poor weather conditions and increased beach patrols.

GB News can confirm that 145 illegal immigrants made it to UK waters and were taken by Border Force to the migrant processing centre at Dover harbour.

Both migrant dinghies were able to launch from beaches between Dunkirk and Calais, despite an additional 200 extra French police officers being drafted in as part of the recent uplift in security paid for by the UK.

Over 1,000 French officers are now working to stop migrants boarding boats on French beaches and put smugglers behind bars, with the extra officers deployed over the last four months.

The 24 per cent increase in law enforcement personnel follows French officers preventing 185 small boat events in the first three months of the new UK-France deal, meaning 61 per cent of all small boat events were stopped across this time.

This included action to stop launches, seize equipment including boats and engines, and arrest smugglers.

However, as fewer boats dare the journey, increasingly more migrants are being stuffed into the reduced number of vessels, with the emergence of mega dinghies carrying upwards of 150 individuals.

GB News's Patrick Christys was left stunned as he watched a massive dinghy launch from the French coast overnight, while investigating the new routes illegal migrants take to break into Britain.

Patrick’s full investigation will air tonight on GB News from 9pm, where he will reveal more astonishing findings and harrowing encounters.

Speaking from a pitch-black beach, the GB News host said: “You'll probably be able to see the silhouette of all of those people wading out to that boat as we speak."

He noted that the scenes caught on camera were the third pickup of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel that night.

Last week, tensions boiled over around England's southern coast as protestors took to the streets in Dover and Portsmouth, where demonstrators, some wearing masks, lined streets near sites where migrants had been dropped off by RNLI lifeboats to be processed and dispersed around the country.

A Home Office spokesman said: "This Government is bearing down on dangerous small boat crossings and restoring control at our border.

"Joint efforts have seen over 48,000 crossing attempts prevented and 1,100 boats and engines seized since the election.

“We are making progress, with the number of small boat crossings down this year and the lowest number recorded for the month of July since 2020.

“But we must go further, which is why we have signed a payment-by-results deal with the French to put 40 per cent more boots on the ground on French beaches.”