BOBBING on the waves 12 miles out in the Channel, the party of astonished Dover fishermen watched as the rickety migrant dinghy puttered past. Desperately overloaded, the little boat chugging through the world’s busiest shipping lanes had been safely escorted into British waters by the French patrol ship Fourmentin. 5 Police in the port of Grand-Fort-Philippe near Dunkirk are having problems coping with the number of migrants desperate to meet Britain Credit: UKNIP 5 Small boats carrying more than 50 migrants per journey are crossing the Channel at a frequent rate Credit: Chris Eades Fishing boat skipper Matt Cocker, 44, told me: “We had a lull with the migrant boats earlier in the year but now it’s got really busy again.
” The dinghy that passed the UK crew was part of a nine-strong flotilla ferrying 492 migrants here on Saturday. Despite them taking power just weeks ago, Labour’s pledge to “smash” the smuggling gangs is already coming under close scrutiny. Some 5,700 migrants have arrived by small boat since Keir Starmer took office — while the Government has yet to appoint a leader for its much-vaunted Border Security Command.
READ MORE ON SMALL BOATS TOK SHOCK Smuggling gangs using TIKTOK to recruit migrants to pilot boats across Channel SMUGGLING SCAM Thirty Brit crime gangs smuggling migrants into UK in order to enslave them On Monday, there were more chaotic scenes off the historic port of Grand-Fort-Philippe near Dunkirk , which has become a “black sp.