Small boat clampdown risks 'death by crushing' as smugglers cram bigger vessels

Success in reducing supply of boats means vessels are now being dangerously overloaded, the former head of the UK Border Force tells The National

A group of migrants leave France onboard a small boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel. PA wire

Migrants will continue to die in greater numbers in overcrowded boats in the English Channel as people smugglers make up for a lack of vessels, a leading expert has told The National.

According to Tony Smith, the former head of the UK’s Border Force and now a border security consultant, success in reducing the supply of boats has resulted in the traffickers cramming ever more numbers of migrants on to the flimsy boats.

Recent weeks have seen asylum seekers die after vessels capsized soon after setting out from northern France.

In the latest incident, a migrant believed to be a Syrian woman, suffocated on a boat packed with 75 asylum seekers that got into difficulty while trying to cross from northern France to the UK.

The French maritime authority Premar said the death was a “new phenomenon of people dying at sea not by drowning (but) by illness or in a crush”.

Mr Smith, the managing director of Fortinus Global, told The National the supply of the vessels reduced as a result of co-operation between law enforcement agencies across Europe.

“The work done on stopping the supply of dinghies means we’re seeing more overcrowded vessels than before,” said Mr Smith.

He explained that the examination of the boats when they arrive in Britain allows investigators to determine where the various components originate.

These parts are transported across Europe through the Balkans from Turkey before being assembled on the beaches of northern France.

The UK has sought the help of countries en route who have been intercepting items suspected of being used to build migrant boats, said Mr Smith, who is also chairman of the International Border Management and Technologies Association.

He said that gangs of “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”.

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

“The demand for crossings is going to rise unless we can show to the migrants that we’re removing people.”

Premar said about 75 people were on board the vessel intercepted about 4.30am UK time on Sunday of whom 35 were rescued.

One person was found “unconscious” and was taken to a hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer in a helicopter but she died later.

The maritime authority said that “given the risks of falling overboard or injury incurred by people in the event of forced intervention, the choice was made to let them continue their journey”.

Twelve migrant deaths were recorded in the Channel in 2023 but the toll has already reached 23 deaths for 2024, according to the maritime authority.

About 255 migrants were detected crossing the English Channel to the UK on Sunday, taking the cumulative number of arrivals so far in 2024 to 16,457, a record for the first seven months of a calendar year, according to provisional figures from the Home Office.

The new Labour government has promised to set up a Border Security Command, led by a former police, military or intelligence chief to tackle small boats, after it abandoned the policy of sending migrants to Rwanda in a bid to deter them from making the crossing.

A Border Force boat recently took migrants rescued in the Channel back to France for the first time, which has been seen as a sign of improving co-operation between the two nations over small boats.

As part of an agreement with the UK, the French police have been taking action against migrants in a bid to stop them crossing the channel but there have been claims this has forced asylum seekers to make more risky journeys.

On Monday, dozens of migrants were seen wading into the water at Gravelines in northern France and pulling themselves on to the crowded boat.

A volunteer for the French migrant charity Utopia 56, who asked not to be named, said they believe it is more dangerous now as the police have clamped down on the border.

“More and more people are coming in one boat because there is less chance for them to try,” they said.

“So there are more people now in one boat than before, there is more risk and things like yesterday.”

Four men died on an overcrowded boat trying to reach Britain on July 12, an Eritrean woman on July 17 and another man two days later.

Alarm Phone, an organisation which passes on the details of migrant distress calls to rescuers, said in these incidents up to 86 people were on the boats.

It said police action has “reduced the number of dinghies arriving to the beaches and which is creating chaos during launches” and this has led to “more dinghies are departing from France underinflated and overcrowded”.

Imran Hussain, executive director of External Affairs at the Refugee Council, said political action was needed to prevent deaths, such as the one at the weekend.

“Our new Government must urgently expand safe routes if it is serious about wanting to prevent tragedies in the Channel like this one,” he told The National.

“The people making these terrifying journeys on flimsy, overcrowded vessels are men, women and children who have fled oppression in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iran and simply want to be safe.

“It is only by giving refugees fleeing war, persecution and violence a safe way to come to the UK that they will stop being forced into the arms of smuggling gangs in desperation.”