Two UK-bound migrants have died as they scrambled for places on overcrowded mega-dinghies.
French prosecutors said they had opened criminal enquiries into the tragedies on English Channel beaches.
Fighting broke out on the coast at Camiers, south of Boulogne-sur-Mer, yesterday morning after a migrant boat got into trouble in the water.
Around 30 people managed to clamber aboard before a man was found in the water, having suffered a heart attack.
Medics tried to revive the man – who has not been identified – but he was then declared dead at the scene. A few miles north, the dead body of a person ‘in their thirties, of African appearance’, was discovered on the beach at Neufchâtel-Hardelot.
The deepening crisis in the Channel saw 781 migrants arrive on Wednesday – the highest daily tally this year. It pushed the total since the general election to 83,279 – passing the British Army’s 83,000 soldiers, said Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp.
‘Labour has let an entire army-sized population cross the Channel illegally,’ the Tory frontbencher said. ‘Labour has lost control of our borders and seems utterly incapable of getting it back.’
Amid growing concerns over Labour’s response to the crisis, this week saw two dinghies reach UK shores without being intercepted by Border Force.
Cabinet minister Lucy Powell admitted the Government ‘can’t stop everything all of the time’ as she was grilled over a week of chaos.
Wednesday’s arrivals beat the previous high for this year of 752 on July 29, and mean 1,085 migrants reached Britain in the first three days of this week. There were further arrivals yesterday but numbers are yet to be officially confirmed.
Migrants try to board a smuggler’s boat off the beach of Equihen-Plage, northern France, on September 23, 2026
Cécile Gressier, the Boulogne prosecutor, confirmed that investigations were underway into the two deaths yesterday, as both people smugglers or other migrants faced possible manslaughter charges.
The fatalities mean that at least 21 people, including women and children, have died in the Channel this year as they tried to get to Britain.
Just yesterday, damning footage showed a man abandoning a child before scrambling onto a dinghy in France.
Harrowing and chaotic footage recorded off a beach in France shows the man clutching a toddler as he attempts to board the small boat.
In chest-deep water, and amid heavy swell, he then lets go of the child who is left floating in the sea for a few seconds, face up.
Members of the French lifeboat organisation, the SNSM, then swim up and pluck the child from the water.
The youngster, who appears to be aged three or four, is then taken back to shore on a rescue board and the man resumes his attempt to clamber aboard the dinghy.
It is not known whether there is any relationship between the man and the child, who was dressed in a black, hooded anorak and an orange lifejacket.
The video clip was filmed off Berck beach, about 30 miles south of Boulogne, on Monday afternoon.
Many migrants have drowned, while others have been crushed to death in overcrowded boats.
The worst tragedy of this kind came in November 2021, when 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK – the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.
Multiple attempts at crossings have taken place from the coast of northern France over the last few days, as the smugglers take advantage of calm seas and good weather.
According to figures from the UK Home Office, 781 migrants arrived in Britain on Wednesday – the highest single-day total recorded so far this year.
In total, 18,565 migrants have reached England via this route since January, a figure down by more than 40 per cent compared to the same period in 2025.
The surge in crossings also indicates that people-trafficking gangs are still getting hold of dinghies and outboard motors with ease, despite a crackdown on supply routes.
The figures will be embarrassing for Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who claimed on September 2: ‘We are boosting officer numbers to record highs to crack down on small-boat launches and the gangs behind them. This work is bearing fruit.’
This week’s two ‘uncontrolled landings’ included a dinghy with up to 30 migrants aboard which reached a Kent beach on Tuesday before police arrived.
Officials confirmed 21 people were detained and taken to a Home Office facility, where they will be processed ahead of lodging asylum claims.
Ms Mahmood has ordered an urgent review of how the boats made it across the Channel unchallenged.
Education Secretary Ms Powell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘[You] can’t stop everything all of the time. Of course it’s a concern.
‘That’s why the Home Secretary has demanded and ordered this urgent review, because this is not what we want to see. This is not acceptable.’
A Border Force union – the ISU – warned that migrant boats were ‘definitely’ arriving undetected along the full length of the UK’s south coast.
The union’s Lucy Moreton said: ‘It’s absolutely, definitely happening. If no one sees them, no one sees them.
‘But we know that we’ve had abandoned vessels, we’ve had reports of uncontrolled landings all the way down to Falmouth.’
The total number of small migrants to enter Britain since the general election is 83,279 – passing the Army’s 83,000 soldiers (Pictured: A grop of migrants are brought in to the Border Security Command compound in Dover, Kent)
Ms Moreton accused the Home Office of taking a position of: ‘If we don’t look for it, we don’t know it’s happening. We don’t know it’s happening, we don’t have to deal with it.’
A former senior Home Office civil servant said the whole of the south coast should be monitored for migrant crossings, not just the narrowest section of the Channel near Dover.
Ex-Border Force director general Tony Smith said: ‘We’ve got technology – radar and drones and surveillance – but clearly, it didn’t work on this particular occasion.’
Asked why migrants would choose to arrive on a beach rather than be rescued and processed, he said they may have wanted to ‘evade capture’ and avoid biometric checks which could flag a criminal record or that they had previously arrived illegally.
A Government spokesman said: ‘Our progress this year in tackling small boats is indisputable – with crossings down by 42 per cent and the lowest recorded over the summer months since 2020.
‘But this week’s events show that while the peaks we are seeing are far below those of previous years, we need to push further and harder in order to eradicate this vile trade.’
