Small boats ‘set for people smugglers’ seized at UK airport

A total of 25 inflatable vessels destined for cross-Channel people-smuggling networks have been confiscated at East Midlands Airport, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has confirmed.

Intercepted within an air cargo consignment travelling from Turkey to the Netherlands on 2 October, the agency estimates the dinghies could have transported as many as 1,700 migrants, averaging roughly 68 passengers per boat.

The confiscated craft measure approximately nine metres in length, close to the 10-metre "mega-dinghies" occasionally deployed by smuggling operations.

This intervention follows a similar discovery in July, when officers at the port of Felixstowe halted a Germany-bound shipment containing 25 boats and 25 engines.

NCA deputy director of investigations Craig Turner said: “We continue to target groups or individuals directly involved in the supply of boats and engines used in the Channel for people smuggling.

“This work is happening both overseas, with international partners, and here in the UK.

“So far it has led to the seizure of in excess of 1,600 boats and engines, denying their use to criminal networks.

“Our assessment is that this is having an impact, driving up the cost of boats and engines, making it more difficult to get them to the coast and eating into the profits of the criminal gangs involved.

“I’ve no doubt the boats we’ve seized here would have ended up being used to risk the lives of a huge number of people in the Channel had we not stepped in. Our investigation continues.”

The provisional total for arrivals in small boat Channel crossings this year is 19,451.

This is down 43 per cent on this time last year and 23 per cent below the figure at this stage in 2024.

Prime minister Andy Burnham has previously blamed Brexit as he claimed that leaving the European Union has prevented the government from stopping migrants from crossing the Channel in inflatable dinghies.

Asked by BBC South East why crossings are still happening, Mr Burnham said: "I do point to the loss of collaboration with neighbours that came with Brexit. That hasn’t helped.

"We had a more cooperative system, if you like, in the past, so we are not able to have the same levels of collaboration that we used to have, but I don’t put that forward as a reason why we won’t keep working until we get the crossings right down.

"That is our goal, that we don’t want to see any crossings at all. "

He added: "I’m not going to give you a date by which we can do that, or a promise that we will do it, as other governments have done in terms of a particular deadline.

"But what I will say to you is I will not stop nor will the Home Secretary until we bear down every element of this criminal, illegal activity and that we do so in a way that gets the numbers right now."