People smuggling gangs have taken advantage of thick fog in the English Channel this morning to launch multiple small boats towards UK waters.
Hundreds of small boat migrants are currently in the Channel heading towards the UK.
GB News can reveal that the total number of migrants who have crossed the Channel so far this year has now passed 23,000.
More than 320 migrants made the crossing on Thursday.
The number who have crossed so far this year is more than 55 per cent up on the same period last year.
So far, under Labour, more than 46,000 migrants have made the illegal crossing by small boat.
The latest arrivals come just one day after Sir Keir Starmer praised German plans to “strengthen” laws to disrupt small boat crossings to the UK by the end of this year.
Speaking alongside visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the Prime Minister said that the proposals that will mean small boats can be seized are a “clear sign that we mean business”.
Berlin agreed last year to make facilitating the smuggling of migrants to the UK a criminal offence in a move that will give law enforcement more powers to investigate the supply and storage of small boats to be used for Channel crossings.
The visit from the German Chancellor follows a new agreement with France over returning some illegal Channel migrants.
And, this week, the Home Secretary announced that French authorities had stopped more than half of small boat crossings in the Channel this year.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs that nearly 500 crossings had been “prevented” by the French police, with 385 reaching British shores.
Speaking in the Commons, Cooper told MPs the Government had five tactics to address small boat crossings, including strengthening the border and clamping down on illegal working.
However, GB News this week uncovered footage showing small boat migrants being handed bottles of water by the French coastguard.
In the footage, a group of migrants run out into the English Channel to catch up with a taxi boat that has come down from one of the local river tributaries.
The French are then seen handing out lifejackets to the migrants on board, with the small boat almost overflowing with people ready to cross the Channel into the UK.
A Home Office spokesman 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 is why this Government has put together a serious plan to take down these networks at every stage.
“Through international intelligence sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in Northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal gangs whilst strengthening the security of our borders."