Border chief warns 4,000 migrants mass on French coast for Channel dash

Britain’s Border Force commander has told MPs that about 4,000 migrants are massing in camps on the French coast ready to cross the Channel, even as Andy Burnham hails Labour’s record on small boats.

Major General Duncan Capps warned the Home Affairs select committee that a “mass casualty” event in the Channel is now inevitable because boats are getting larger and more crowded. Citing French estimates, he said the number gathered in makeshift camps across northern France has roughly doubled against normal levels, with around 3,800 people currently split between sites near Dunkirk and Calais.

“There are a lot of people in the camps at the moment, which is bad in one respect because a lot of people are there. It also represents the fact that the French are making it very difficult, particularly in the Dunkerque-Calais area, to get across,” Maj Gen Capps told the committee.

Increased French beach patrols have cut launches from the old spots. Smuggling gangs have simply moved. New launch points now include Belgium and Normandy, the latter a near-60-nautical-mile haul. “If people try that in the winter, we are going to have loss of life,” he warned, calling it his foremost concern. He noted a boat this year carrying 230 people and said it is “only a matter of time till we have a mass casualty event in the Channel… It is extraordinary that it hasn’t happened so far.”

Officers joined French counterparts to pull 168 people from one vessel in French waters with no drownings, which he called “quite an extraordinary thing”. More than 50 people died on crossing attempts in 2024 on French coastguard figures, the deadliest year since the crisis began.

Returns stuck while the camps grow

On removals, Maj Gen Capps said only five per cent of small-boat arrivals have ever been sent back, fewer than 7,000 people. Many come from countries without returns deals, so conventional removal is all but impossible. The closed one-in-one-out arrangement with France had made a “big difference” by allowing returns of Afghans, Iranians, Yemenis and Somalians that were not possible before. He suggested a wider European returns deal and foreign returns hubs could help.

Britain cannot keep absorbing this pressure while the numbers on the French shore keep rising and the boats grow more dangerous. Control of the border is a basic duty of government, not a slogan for the cameras. The public expects firm returns and real deterrence, not another round of managed failure.

Andy Burnham has claimed crossings are falling under the Government, telling GB News: “The numbers can fluctuate but overall boat crossings are down, down quite significantly year on year. So that does suggest that the plan is working.” He defended the £662million deal with France, saying the payment-by-results arrangement has put more law enforcement on the other side of the Channel in summer 2026 than last summer, while conceding “That’s not good enough.”

The Prime Minister has vowed to chase people-smuggling gangs and insisted restoring border control remains a priority, saying the public wants to see control exerted and that more work is still required. The camps are fuller, the boats are bigger, and the warning from the Border Force commander could not be clearer. What happens next depends on whether returns finally match the scale of the arrivals now waiting to set sail.

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Original source: GB News