How drive to smash boat gangs made English Channel migrant crossings more deadly

The number of migrants packed on to each boat crossing the English Channel has reached an all-time high, making the journeys on the flimsy vessels even more perilous, analysis of data by The National reveals.

Boats now carry on average more than 60 asylum seekers, and often that figure reaches 70 and above, while the boats remain the same size as before.

The increasing number of deaths of migrants in the English Channel is being directly linked to this overcrowding. The boats become even more unstable, and when they inevitably get into trouble, there are more passengers at risk.

This year has seen a disturbing new phenomenon in which the sheer numbers getting on to boats has seen migrants being crushed to death, alongside the continuous risk of drowning.

Dina Al Shammari, 21, from Kuwait, died when she was crushed on a boat carrying around 60 people on July 28.

So far this year, 22 migrants have drowned compared to 15 for the whole of last year and five in 2022, when the total number of asylum seekers crossing to the UK peaked, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

At least 12 people died, including 10 women and girls, and 65 were rescued when a boat tore apart making the dangerous journey to the UK on Tuesday.

The increased number of migrants per crossing has been attributed to a crackdown on supply of boats coming to the gangs from Turkey through the Balkans so in order to maintain their profits the smugglers are packing more migrants on to each vessel.

The UK's Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on Friday pledged to smash the people smuggling gangs and said the first two months of the Labour government have seen “significant seizures of boats and equipment in Europe”.

The shift in emphasis towards tackling gangs is a departure from former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's pledge to “stop the boats” through deterring migrants from crossing the Channel by sending them to Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed.

Action by French police acting as part of an enforcement agreement with the UK has meant there are few opportunities to cross, again resulting in gangs seeking to load more people on to each boat, says Utopia 56, an organisation that works with migrants.

“There are less boats and still the same amount of people who want to cross,” said Axel Gaudinat, a co-ordinator with the Utopia 56 in Calais told The National.

“Obviously, people get upset if they don't have the opportunity to try to so there are more people on the boats and so more and more deaths.

“In 2021 the average was about 40 per boat but it is now around 60. So, as the numbers on the boat increase, so the risk goes up.

“We can explain it by European police trying to cut the supplies of boats which means there are fewer boats for the same amount of people seeking to cross the Channel.”

Using data provided by the UK’s Home Office for every day since January 31, 2018, when the first small boat was recorded as arriving, The National has been able to look at how there has been a steady increase in the number migrants getting on each boat.

On that day, seven migrants were recorded as arriving in the UK on one boat and later that year as the numbers began to pick up.

In 2022, the year that has so far seen the largest number of migrants arriving, the average per boat began to creep up but only got to 50 or above on two occasions.

Last year for the first time, an average of 60 per boat began to appear in the data, which happened four time, and one day there was an average of 70.

This year there have been 23 days when the average number of people on a boat has been over 60 and three days when there was an average of 70 per boat and one occasion that figure reached 77.

But while these figures are the averages and on individual occasions anecdotal evidence suggests the number on board maybe even higher.

Mr Gaudinat said he came across one boat that those on board said was carrying 81 people and another with 100 people.

A projection by The National shows that if nothing changes then the yearly average number of migrants per boat will hit 105 in five years’ time.

Utopia 56 runs a helpline for migrants to call or message if they run into trouble and Mr Gaudinat said that in 2022, they received 183 and in 2023 but in 2024 we are already at around 227 distress calls.

“We are receiving more distress calls than before,” he said.

As well as overcrowding, Mr Gaudinat explained that this was due to boats being forced to take longer routes to cross the Channel meaning there's more chance of getting into trouble.

The departure point is shifting from Calais, to Wimereux to the south near Boulogne-sur-Mer and Gravelines, to the north.

Ms Al Shammari was travelling with her three younger siblings, aged 13 to 19, and parents, when she died off the coast of Calais on July 28.

Her mother, Amira, said the family arrived in France on July 1 and had attempted the crossing five times before the night her eldest daughter died.

“The boat was so crowded. Dina was the first one, she ran to the boat because she wanted to go to the UK as soon as possible,” she said.

“Then they followed her and, just like squeezing her from all over the place. When squeezing her she wasn't able to breathe, and she started shouting.”

The boats used to transport migrants across the Channel are constructed from flimsy materials sourced in China by businesses in Turkey.

An estimated 80 per cent to 90 per cent of rubber dinghies used to transport, paying an average €2,500 to €3,500, to across the English Channel are made there.

Component parts are then transported across Europe before being stored in Germany, and from there they are taken across the border to France to be assembled on the coast.

The boats are of a flimsy construction and underpowered for the numbers of migrants they are expected to carry.

The UK signed an agreement with Turkey last year on tackling the trade in boats and also with Bulgaria and Serbia, countries through which their transported.

According to Tony Smith, the former head of the UK’s Border Force and now a border security consultant, said work done on stopping the supply of dinghies means there are more overcrowded vessels than before.

“Albanians and Kurds are all fighting one and other for the spaces and when one does get afloat they’re overloading them, which is why you’re seeing 70 or 80 on board and that’s very, very dangerous,” said Mr Smith, the managing director of Fortinus Global.

“I think there’s going to be more deaths and I think it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.”

In the aftermath of the latest deaths, the UK’s Border Security and Asylum Minister Angela Eagle was pressed on BBC Radio about the unintended consequences of action to disrupt the supply of boats which have led to a more migrants being crammed on to boats.

“The gangs are putting their lives at risk daily,” she replied.

“If we were to leave this trade to carry on it would only get worse and in many ways the last government allowed it to become industrialised by not cracking down on it when it began a few years ago.”

She would not be drawn on whether the UK would follow the example of Greece and Italy in pushing migrant boats back, which has reduced numbers but at the cost of international condemnation.

“What we have to do is to is stop the supply of boats in any way we can to disrupt the financial models, to arrest people, to disrupt the gangs to make certain that we have communications in the countries where people are fooled into think that they will be given safe transit to the UK and a job afterwards and what the actual realities are.”