Name: Smuggling gangs switch tactics to use 'taxi boats' for journeys across the Channel | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-06-18T17:00:26.000Z
Duration: 5 min 27 s
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Downing Street says the small boat situation in the English Channel is deteriorating.

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French police are struggling to halt a potentially record-breaking surge of people from reaching the UK in small boats organised by a growing network of smuggling gangs.

More than 16,500 people have crossed the Channel this year alone.

That's up 45% on the same period last year.

Andrew Harding has been to the beaches of northern France to see the challenge faced by the authorities as smuggling gangs change their tactics.

A serene stretch of French sand south of Calais and the end of another busy night.

Below, some of the many hundreds of people who've been trying to dodge the police and catch a ride on a smuggler's boat.

And here's how that struggle has been playing out.

Moments earlier, on the very same beach, dozens of migrants gathering in the shallows.

Camerawoman Lea Gage and I wade out towards them.

The boat circles, people waiting their turn as if queuing for a bus or a taxi.

On board, the man on the left appears to be directing things.

The next group is moving forwards to try and get on board.

There are people here from Afghanistan, Eritrea.

The so-called taxi boat system is the smugglers' latest tactic.

They launch the boats in secret, sometimes up to 100 kilometres away, then cruise along the coast, picking up passengers and avoiding the police.

This is the problem for the French police.

As soon as these migrants are in the water, the police say they cannot intervene.

And so 18 police officers stand and watch.

What would you say to people in Britain watching these pictures and thinking, surely the French police can do more?

The police will be able to be more effective when our government changes the rules to authorise us to intercept a boat when it's already in the water.

But we need to be careful not to put the in more danger.

It's been clear for days that another surge of small boat crossings was coming, a build-up of people in the camps, good weather forecast.

And so a last proper meal for Luna from Somalia before she sets off again.

That's why women and children left so many times behind.

Afternoon, and the crowds cram into buses, guided by their smugglers, to be dropped off along a huge stretch of French coastline.

Nighttime, and the French police are getting good at spotting the migrants with their drones, the camera picking up people sitting round a fire.

But as so often, the smugglers are a step ahead.

And now, frustrating news reaches the police.

Up the coast, this car has just raced onto the beach itself, with a taxi boat strapped to the roof, ready to launch in seconds.

The police are now trying to catch the smugglers before they can pick up any passengers.

So we're now racing up the coast, following the police, as they try to track a taxi boat, which is already at sea, and we can actually see it off the coast just there.

They're waiting in the water, hoping to catch a taxi boat, which we can see arriving just now.

Within minutes, dozens of people have managed to squeeze on board, and the taxi boat sets off towards England.

The French police say overall, they stop more than two-thirds of small boat launches on land.

On this occasion, perhaps a dozen people are left behind.

One couple pondering, wordlessly, whether to linger or to head back to shore.

The lieu of Britain means most here will try again, and again.

Andrew Harding, BBC News, Northern France.