More than a thousand people have crossed the English Channel less than a week after an international operation to disrupt a people smuggling network, GB News can reveal.
Yesterday alone, 442 people were taken off 25 small boats by British authorities as they tried to make their way to the UK.
Already today, more than a hundred have made the crossing, with operations still ongoing to intercept other small boats in the Channel.
Yesterday alone, 442 people were pulled off 25 small boats by British authorities
Gareth Fuller
Last Wednesday, the UK’s National Crime Agency announced 39 people had been arrested as part of a major move against an organised criminal gang believed to be responsible for smuggling up to 10,000 people across the Channel.
The multi-national operation saw 50 separate raids in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
A total of 135 small boats were seized, along with 45 outboard motors, and 1,200 life jackets.
The National Crime Agency said that the move against the criminal network would likely impact the number of small boats coming across the Channel in the short term, as the people smuggling gangs struggled to source new boats.
But GB News has been told that smugglers had managed to hide stocks of small boats and related equipment in the countryside around the beaches in north western France where the small boats regularly launch from.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent
Gareth Fuller