Human trafficking gangsters may have pocketed almost £2million in just three days this month – after their profits were inflated by the use of new mega-dinghies, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Official figures show that in between August 8th and 10th, a total of 911 illegal immigrants were smuggled into Britain in just ten Channel crossings.

That period included the record 230 migrants crammed into a single 49ft dinghy that arrived in the UK in the early hours of Monday last week- including a baby.

That monster boat – which is now being stored in a Government warehouse – was 7ft longer than any previously recorded.  

The potentially deadly new larger-boat tactic used by ruthless people smuggling gangs is making their trade even more lucrative. 

The gangs charge around £2,000 each from desperate migrants to get them across  the channel meaning their gross income in that 72 hour period will have been somewhere over £1.8 million. 

And the overheads are relativley miniscule.  

The Daily Mail found a Chinese-made 49ft vessel identical to the one intercepted by Border Patrol forces on Monday available for sale online for just £1,416.52.

This would equate to a outlay of just £6 per head for a boat carrying 230 passengers – doing little to eat into the gang masters’ profits.

While the ‘crew’ they use to pilot the boat are despeate young men or even teenagers who will usually do so in return for a free crossing.  

Meanwhile every migrant entering the UK in this way will each leave taxpayers saddled with a bill estimated at up to £450,000-a-year – leading to a staggering total of £410million for that three day period. 

This huge dinghy, carrying 230 illegal migrants packed together like sardines, arrived in the UK on Monday last week, sparking public fury

The Daily Mail has revealed how human trafficking gangs pocketed almost £2million in just three days – a huge profit largely driven by by new Chinese-made mega dinghies

A deflated dinghy is seen on the quayside in Dover, Kent after a record 230 migrants arrived in a single crossing of the Channel

Longer than a London double-decker bus with more passengers than a Boeing 737 jet, the record mega-dinghy provided a grim insight into the radical new tactics used by the people-smugglers.

Dramatic images released by the French sea rescue services, show the flimsy inflatable buckling under the weight of its human cargo – who were crushed together like sardines with legs dangling in the water.

Before entering one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, two passengers who requested assistance were taken to Calais by a French Navy rescue ship.

The boat was allowed to carry on with its journey despite French rescuers saying there could have been a tragedy.

Critics said the development made a mockery of Labour’s pledge to ‘smash the gangs’ and said their ‘weak attempts’ at fixing the Channel crisis ‘have turned the UK into a complete laughing stock’. 

More than 200,000 illegal migrants have entered Britain since small-boat records began in 2018.

Just seven people were on board when the first migrants to land in the UK made the crossing in January that year.

By last year the average number of people per crossing had soared to 62 but it has continued growing and this summer has seen huge increases again.

French police did nothing more than watch as a baby and toddlers were carried on to a record-sized dinghy to England

A dramatic image released by the French lifeboat service showed a dinghy almost sinking

Migrants run towards the beach to board the dinghy at a beach in northern France kast week

In mid-July a new record was set with 128 individuals on a single boat, breaking the previous record of 125 in September 2025.

That too was quickly overtaken on July 24 when 165 migrants reached the UK on a mega-dinghy said to be the same size as a standard bus.

A further nother 250 migrants arrived in just three boats on Monday this week, again demonstrating the trend to bigger passenger numbers on each vessel. 

The giant boats are increasingly preferred by the gangs because they both increase profits and reduce the risk of detection by minimising the number of crossings needed between France and England. 

The increased risk to human life does not appear to enter into their calculations.  

A huge global market has developed for cheaply manufactured boats which are made to order in China or are available to buy online.

Factories in the Weihai and Qingdao port regions of eastern China have become a hotspot for making the inflatable boats used in people smuggling operations.

The dinghies are specifically designed to carry huge volumes of people, no matter the danger.

We found a 49ft craft for sale on Alibaba.com, an online shopping platform which is China’s equivalent of Amazon and is based in the city of Hangzhou.

The so-called ‘fishing and cargo boat’ is available for sale for just £1,416.52.

A slightly smaller vessel, a 39-ft long inflatable PVC ‘pontoon boat’ complete with wooden floor and outboard motor, is on sale for £1,382.88.

The website previously made no attempt to disguise the true purpose of these cheap inflatable boats, listing them for sale under the tag ‘refugee boat’ or ‘migrant boat’ for as little as £1,000,

Adverts informed potential buyers that the vessels, made of plywood, aluminium and PVC, could – crucially – carry up to 30 passengers with life jackets as ‘optional equipment’.

Following a series of complaints the company announced five years ago that it would no longer tolerate sellers using its platform for these purposes.

But while references to ‘refugee boats’ and ‘migrant boats’ have been removed from its platform, the cheap inflatable boats are still up for sale.

The mega dinghy was deflated and folded up after crossing the Channel with 230 on board before being inspected by police officers at Dover Port 

Since small boat records began in 2018, more than 200,000 people have been smuggled into Britain

Meanwhile, last July, Yamar Outdoors Product Company, which is based in Weihai, was financially sanctioned by the British Government for the suspected sale of ‘immigrant’ boats to Channel trafficking gangs.

Vessels are transported along a 6,000 mile route across continents, seas, border points and some of the harshest terrain in the world.

The smugglers buy the raw materials – inflatable hulls, pumps and engines – which are dubbed ‘go kits’ – and have them shipped to stopping point countries, most commonly Turkey, from where they are often transported onwards via the Balkans to Germany.

After being assembled then stored until needed, typically in Germany, the boats are taken through Belgium into northern France and to their pre-arranged launch site.

They moved while deflated and folded up so they can be transported in smaller vans to avoid suspicion – then readied for sailing on the beach.

Once in the sea, the vessel will sail along the coast, like a water-taxi, picking up migrants who wade out knee or waist deep from agreed pick up points at various beaches to climb aboard.

Migrants are asked to source their own life jackets and hide in sand dunes waiting for last minute notification that their transport to the UK is arriving.

A recent Daily Mail investigation demonstrated how many migrants buy their kit from a well known sports shop with branches in Calais and Dunkirk  

Vessels finally depart once all available space has been taken up.

While most of the passengers on the larger boats are adult males, gangs will often deliberately place a handful of women and children on board, aware of the tactical value of having ‘vulnerable’ people in a dinghy.

To add to the peril, the super boats are usually ‘skippered’ by migrants who are often still in their teens who have been given only rudimentary training on seamanship and navigation.

These boys or young men are offered a free or heavily-discounted crossing by the smugglers, though some have also later claimed they were menaced with the threat of violence to take charge.

The record crossing alone is thought to have earned the people smugglers who organised it around £460,000 for the one-way journey.

The new tactics come as sophisticated surveillance and reconnaissance operations have managed to disrupt some of the regular launch sites around Calais and Dunkirk.

Supply chains have also been interrupted with boats and engines making their way through Turkey and the Balkans intercepted along with operations within the EU.

The record mega-dinghy is understood to have set sail from Berck-sur-Mer, 60 miles south of Calais, with a French lifeboat crew reporting that the boat had already 50 passengers when it was spotted heading towards another beach to pick up more.

Some 30 people had to be rescued from the water after rushing in to try and board the dinghy which then headed towards the UK ‘buckling under the swell’.

The day before another heavily loaded mega-dinghy set off from Dieppe, even further south, and picked up several young children, including a baby just a few months old, along the French coast before successfully reaching Dover.

A fisherman who has been trawling waters off Dover and Folkestone for 20 years told the Mail how he now regularly encounters migrant boats – and how he fears a mass drowning will happen unless these new mega-dinghies are stopped.

He said: ‘The situation in the Channel is becoming more and more dangerous.

‘Ten years ago when migrants first started coming over in boats and dinghies, we’d see perhaps half a dozen or so to a vessel.

‘The past month has been ridiculous, we’ve seen incidents where hundreds of people have climbed on board these ridiculously stretched boats. The latest of which saw 230 people reach Dover in one so-called mega dinghy.

‘But these vessels are rickety at best and designed for about 20-25 people maximum. The numbers piling on are ten times that.

‘It’s a big concern because a human disaster is just around the corner if this goes on. We nearly had it last week when a dinghy with 173 people caught fire in the middle of the channel on the French side.

‘The gangs are discarding safety more and more for profit. They’re trading with people’s lives.’

Life jackets for sale at the French sports superstore Decathlon in Dunkirk

The National Crime Agency insisted officers are fighting back against the smuggling gangs, both here and in mainland Europe.

A total of 25 large inflatable dinghies – that were believed to have been used to bring at least 2000 migrants to Britain – were captured just a month ago.

On July 18, the NCA and specialist search teams from Border Force seized the 33ft inflatable boats and 25 outboard engines from the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk, which were destined for people smugglers in Hamburg in Germany.

The rubber boats – which were likely to have transported up to 80 people each – and Parsun outboard engines were found in a container that was being shipped from China.

It is believed to be the first time a bulk consignment of boats and engines destined for people traffickers has been seized in Britain.

Germany has long been a logistical hub for the storage and transportation of inflatable boats, engines and life jackets.

The industry grew as facilitating migration towards a non-EU country like the UK was not illegal until last December when new legislation was introduced making the practice punishable by up to ten years in prison.

In March, NCA officers joined a major international operation which saw four people arrested in Germany suspected of supplying equipment to cross-Channel people smugglers.

The raids, which took place in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, saw boats and engines seized, as well as petrol cans, pumps and life jackets, as officers raided a number of suspected storage warehouses linked to the gang. Residential properties were also searched.

The individuals arrested, all Syrian nationals, are suspected of being key figures in the organised crime group supplying this equipment and now face extradition to Belgium where they face prosecution for people smuggling and being part of an organised crime group.

A spokesman for the NCA told the Daily Mail said: ‘We know that many of these vessels are manufactured in far Europe or Asia, where they are made specifically for the use of people smugglers.

‘There is no legitimate use for these kinds of vessels. Some will be probably made to order as there is no other commercial use for these types of boat.

‘We know that organised crime groups (OCGs) are versatile and agile and will use whatever equipment is available at the time to maximise profits by sending large numbers of migrants across the channel on sub-standard equipment.

‘The average size of the boats used in channel crossings is around 10 metres, and we’ve seen both larger and smaller vessels used, but they are consistently dangerous and un-seaworthy, increasing the risk to life.’

The NCA says that little-to-no modifications are being made to the boats in terms of being able to carry extra weight and travel longer distances which was a ‘clear indication of the callous disregard the smugglers have for human life’.

The spokesman added: ‘People smuggling gangs are constantly trying to adapt and we are working internationally to tackle their business models, end-to-end.

‘We are proactively targeting and degrading the supply chain of boats and engines, the social media they use to advertise crossings, their finances, and the controlling minds coordinating the crossings, in the fight against organised immigration crime.

‘The ability of facilitators to bring engines, migrants and boats together simultaneously has been degraded.

‘What has not changed is the callous disregard that people smugglers have for human life, and their willingness to employ substandard and dangerous equipment for these illegal crossings.’

Since 2023, the NCA has seized more than 1,500 boats and engines – including the 49 footer confiscated on Monday – and has targeted gang members across Europe and Britain.

The spokesman said: ‘We aim to target and disrupt people smuggling organised crime groups at every step of the route, in source countries, in transit countries such as Greece, Italy and Bulgaria, near the UK border in France and Belgium, and those operating inside the UK itself.

‘Boats and engines are transported across the European continent to the French and Belgian coast.

‘We are working with international partners to reduce the supply of this equipment, which is of poor standard and puts migrants at high risk.

Trumpeting the successful raid in Germany, NCA Deputy Director of Investigations Craig Turner said: ‘We believe this operation has successfully disrupted and dismantled a significant organised crime group supplying equipment to people smugglers operating in the Channel.

‘These vessels are completely unsuitable for what they are being used for, with 70 or more people crammed on, propelled by a hugely under-powered engine.

‘The fact that they are being put into the open sea in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes demonstrates the complete disregard these criminal networks have for the safety of those they transport.

‘This operation will have dealt a blow to their business model and supply lines.

‘By targeting vile smugglers before boats even reach the water, we are hitting these gangs where it hurts most – their business model.

‘Through closer co‑operation across Europe, we are delivering record high arrests, seizures and convictions. We will stop at nothing to restore order and control to our borders.’

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a new security deal with France in April that will see £662million handed over by British taxpayers over three years.

She said it was a ‘landmark agreement’ that would ‘really arm us to go after the people-smugglers’.

But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp visited a French beach last month and witnessed gendarmes standing by as small boats departed – and even refusing to arrest an apparent people-trafficker.

He said: ‘Labour’s weak attempts at fixing the Channel crisis have turned the UK into a complete laughing stock. Shabana Mahmood is presiding over a complete and utter farce.

‘She’s handing over £660million of our money to the French, who are pathetically standing around on the beaches while hundreds of migrants embark on massive dinghies.’

In a swipe at the gendarmes’ ability to halt such large boats, he added: ‘This is now beyond a joke. The French authorities could easily have stopped a vessel this size from embarking in shallow waters.

‘I recently saw for myself French gendarmes shamefully standing by and doing nothing while illegal immigrants boarded in knee-deep water.’

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the boat crossings should be declared a ‘national security emergency’, complaining that illegal arrivals were ‘out of control’.

Reform home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the mega-dinghy was ‘nothing short of a national humiliation’ adding ‘Britain’s borders are now a standing joke with people smugglers who are laughing all the way to the bank, knowing they can operate with impunity.’

An Alibaba.com spokesperson said: ‘Alibaba.com is a B2B marketplace that connects buyers and sellers globally. 

‘We adhere to all applicable laws and regulations in the markets we operate in and require our sellers to do the same. 

‘Listings for boats and dinghies on our platform are intended for legitimate commercial uses such as fishing, cargo transport and vessel support services. 

‘Search terms such as “refugee boat” or “migrant boat” are in violation of our listings policies and will not return positive search results.’