French authorities have been accused of giving illegal migrants lifejackets to cross the English Channel, amid damning new claims Britain’s small boats crisis is getting worse under Labour.
Fisherman Matt Coker, owner of Coker Seafishing in Dover, claims groups of asylum seekers are being escorted by the French authorities instead of being intercepted and turned back.
He claims the French are now being overwhelmed by the numbers risking their lives crossing the 21-mile stretch of water in a dangerous bid to get to the UK.
Mr Coker says he has heard radio transmissions from French vessels about dishing out lifejacket to migrants to improve their chances of safely crossing the Channel.
The French then demand the floatation aids are returned by the British once the migrants reach the UK, he added.
‘They’re giving them life jackets now because so many of them are not getting in the boats with life jackets,’ he told Times Radio. ‘I suppose…they’re trying to avoid another tragedy.
‘Then they ask for the life jackets back off the British once they’ve picked them up.’
The French authorities today categorically denied supplying life jackets to migrants trying to reach Britain.
Senior officials contacted by MailOnline said any such allegation was false.
Fisherman Matt Coker, owner of Coker Seafishing, claims groups of asylum seekers are being escorted by the French authorities instead of being intercepted and stopped.
His says the authorites are giving migrants lifejackets to aid with the crossing (pictured are migrants as they scramble to get on boat an inflatable boat near Calais, France, last month)
Migrants are seen crossing the Channel. In the distance, a ship can be seen shadowing them
The fisherman said the migrant crisis had ballooned to levels not seen for years.
It comes as Home Office figures this week revealed 6,796 people have arrived in 123 boats since the start of the year – while a staggering 30,000 have arrived since Labour took power in July.
‘In the last six months, it seems to have gone back to what it was two or three years ago,’ Mr Coker claimed.
‘The French are actually escorting them through the shipping lane to give them a safe passage… but it almost seems to me like it might be encouraging the problem,’ he said.
The Kent-based sailor, who has previously hit out at the number of migrants reaching the UK, claimed it was ‘safer for you to cross the Channel now than it’s ever been’.
‘The UK Border Force will be waiting on the border to pick you up, rather than waiting well within UK waters,’ he added.
A senior Interior Ministry source in Paris, said: ‘Everything is done to prevent nautical equipment falling into the hands of people smugglers, and those on the illegal crossings they organise.
‘There would be no possibility of equipment such as life jackets being provided – this would be illegal, and also encourage the crossings.’
There would be no official comment to the lifejacket claim from the French authorities, said the source, because they were based on a single source, and apparently without any verifiable evidence.
But an emergency services source in Calais said: ‘Huge efforts are made to prevent the illegal crossings – anybody found assisting them is liable to prosecution.’
MailOnline has approached the Home Office for comment.
The comments came as dozens of small boats migrants were pictured arriving in Dover on Tuesday after being rescued by British authorities.
Border Force cutters Volunteer and Typhoon, alongside the RNLI’s Dungeness lifeboat were involved in the operation.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel on Tuesday
Dozens of migrants are seen packed on a boat heading for the UK in August 2024
So far this year 6,796 people have arrived in 123 boats – many of which are dangerously overcrowded, with dozens of passengers crammed on board.
In comparison, by this time last year 5,435 people had arrived in 114 boats.
In 2020, the number of people who had crossed by this date was 465; in 2021, it was 1,134; by 2022 that had surged to 4,548 before dropping to 3,770 in 2023; it then rose to 4,644 last year.
Over the weekend, Chris Philp, Shadow Home Secretary, said it was proof the Government had lost control of migration and that its attempts to break up smuggling gangs were failing.
He told MailOnline: ‘These shocking figures show this Labour government has lost control of our borders. When Keir Starmer scrapped the Rwanda plan before it started, he gave up the only deterrent this country had.
‘Crossings are up 31 per cent since the election and 2025 so far has been the worst year ever as a result. Starmer’s claim to ‘smash the gangs’ lies in tatters.’
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that good weather had enabled the high number of arrivals in March after January and February, when several storms were wreaking havoc on the UK, had lower levels of crossings than previous years.
‘March had much higher levels and the really unacceptable situation that we’re in is because of the way the criminal gangs have taken hold, our border security ends up being dependent on the weather and we cannot continue like this, where the number of calm days affects the number of crossings and affects our border security as well,’ Ms Cooper told the BBC‘s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
On average, more than 55 people are being stuffed into tiny inflatable dinghies at a time and cast into the Channel – not all of whom will necessarily make it across alive.
The group were all wearing orange life jackets and there appeared to be women as well as men among the group
According to the French-run Office for the Fight against Illicit Trafficking of Migrants, 78 people died trying to reach Britain via small boat last year.
And last month, two migrants died in the space of two days last week. At least eight others have either died or been reported missing in the Channel since the start of 2025, according to the United Nation’s International Organisation for Migration.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
‘The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.
‘That’s why this government has put forward a serious, credible plan to finally restore order to our asylum system, including tougher enforcement powers, ramping up returns to their highest levels for more than half a decade and a major crackdown on illegal working to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.’
Earlier this month, the Government signed a roadmap with French authorities that aims to disrupt smuggling gangs and deter migrants from making the journey, as well as making it easier to send migrants out of Britain.
It comes as Labour looks set to backtrack on an election promise to scrap the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
Last week MailOnline reported that an ongoing review of Government spending acknowledged that ‘demand for short-term residential accommodation… is likely to remain over the coming years’.
