British maritime authorities report recovering the largest known single dinghy used, to date, in an illegal Channel crossing.
A ‘mega dinghy’ was found with 107 law-breaking passengers, smashing the previous record for a single boat (96) and pointing to a dangerous new phase in the UK’s migrant crisis. The long boat carried the largest single load to arrive in UK waters overnight prior to its discovery on Wednesday, August 8. Last month, an average migrant boat was carrying around 60 people.
While the inflatable raft was taken to Dover harbour for Border Force inspection, it could point to a change in tactics by people smugglers. The gangs, looking resilient and unsmashed, have already switched to using inland and ‘taxi boat’ launches to ply their risky trade, innovating more quickly than the French and British authorities.
A supply line of larger vessels would accelerate the already record-breaking pace of illegal migration into Britain by sea. Such boats have already been deployed across established Mediterranean smuggling routes. At 18 metres in length, the new vessels—likely made to order in China—are seven metres longer than the current most widely used boats in the Channel.
